The first indication that one side is beginning to lose an argument is when it starts to resort to false claims and baseless assertions. The more important the argument and the greater the resulting humiliation, the more outrageous and brazen the false claims become.
The nation is currently witnessing a manifestation of this persistent tendency. The subject of the false claims and baseless assertions is the campaign of the Duterte administration – more specifically, the campaign of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – against this country’s mining industry. Realizing that she is on the verge of losing the argument about the right of the Philippine mining industry to continue existing, DENR head Gina Lopez has made a declaration seeking to place the mining industry within the context of the poverty situation in this country.
Several weeks ago, Secretary Gina, in her best mining-is-evil tone, said this to the members of a Congressional committee: “The poorest areas in the Philippines are mining areas.” Naturally, the legislators were alarmed, but the alarm lasted only until the mining folk, citing Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and individual corporate data, pointed out the absolute incorrectness of Secretary Gina’s brazen assertion.
“Studies do not support the contention that mining increases poverty in the areas where (mining companies) operate,” quickly retorted Chito Gozar, a senior official of OceanaGold Corporation, one of the largest gold producers in this country. “On the contrary, mining (activity) spikes household incomes in mine sites,” he said.
Gozar said that there is not a single mine in any of the provinces identified by PSA’s First Semester 2015 Poverty Statistics as the ten poorest: Northern Samar, Siquijor, Sulu, Lanao del Sur, Bukidnon, Agusan del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, Sarangani and Zamboanga del Sur. Yet those provinces recorded the nation’s highest poverty incidence rates. For Lanao del Sur the poverty incidence rate was 70.2 percent. For Sulu and Sarangani the corresponding percentages were 61.8 and 54.5, respectively.
In contrast, Gozar said, Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet, which host mining operations, registered much lower poverty incidence rates. Benguet’s rate was 6.5 percent and Nueva Vizcaya’s was 15.8 percent. This country’s oldest and most prestigious mining operations are located in Benguet. OceanaGold’s Didipio Mines are located in the Nueva Vizcaya barangay of the same name.
The OceanaGold official cited the findings of the Barangay Didipio socio-economic assessment conducted by the UP Los Banos Foundation. The salient finding of the assessment was the P19,380 mean annual household income in Barangay Didipio. This figure is significantly higher than the 2015 national poverty threshold (P18,935) and the national average income (P17,166).
There was an additional socio-economic benefit for Barangay Didipio from the entry of a mining company into the locality, Gozar noted. The barangay’s work force gradually shifted from farm income to salary income. Today 82 percent of Barangay Didipio workers are recipients of salaries, he said.
Either Secretary Gina was not informed about these facts by her staff or she was informed about them but decided to try and pull a fast one on the legislators, hoping that no one would come forward and set the record straight. Either possibility is not good for the embattled DENR chief, for it indicates that she has run out of valid arguments against the Philippine mining industry.
A final word of advice for Secretary Gina in her coming appearances before the Commission on Appointments and other Congressional bodies. Fight clean (the Spanish phrase is jugar limpio). Stop saying things that sound good for your personal crusade. And stick to the facts, e.g. the Philippine mining industry has not been a promoter of poverty.
E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com
