Cantilan Community Network

Tandag City, October 1, 2008: At the MMDC Proposed Nickel Project Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Public Consultation held on September 30, 2008 at the Cantilan Gym, Governor Vicente Pimentel declared, “We should give mining a chance to solve the unemployment situation in Surigao del Sur,” albeit tempered in the presence of the Most Rev. Bishop Nereo P. Odchimar of the Tandag Diocese.  At the same company’s Public Hearing last September 8, 2008 in Brgy. Cabangahan, the governor openly attacked the church, while saying, “I am not an enemy of the church, but our solution to the jobless situation is in mining.” “The opposition and the church tell us we should not.” “The church wants the people to be poor so that they will constantly supplicate to them.” ”We should not allow them to dictate to us.” “How is the church going to solve unemployment?  He further declared that in 10 years, there will be no more poor people in Carrascal.  Everybody will have jobs.

The governor operates a mining contract in his brothers’ mining company, CTP Construction, which has three MPSAs in Carrascal.  He also said that mining operations would not damage the environment; government officials won’t allow it to happen, “we are not stupid.”  At the Consultation, he added, “We will protect the environment at all cost.”  Majority of the audience were not in favor of mining yet were politely quiet unlike his audience at the hearing in Cabangahan who were clearly generous with their applause.

Brgy. Cabangahan is an Indigenous People’s community of the Manobo tribe and their barrio is inside the MMDC MPSA.  It has 200 voters who are mostly unskilled and whose livelihood depends on forest resources.  The mining company gave the barrio a school building and rehabilitated the road leading to the town of Cantilan.  They were also promised jobs in the company.  The company transported the barrio folks including residents of sitio Lobo which has 100 voters to the EIA consultation.  At the gym, Pastor James Bat-ao, also a Manobo from Cabangahan told his people that the company can offer them jobs and able to give them money and things because they will get a lot of money from their ancestral land.  In a separate occasion, the Pastor addressed his people, “What kind of jobs will the company be able to give you? Chainsaws? That is the only skill you have.  You won’t be able to cut trees anymore with those chainsaws because the company will own them.”

Mayor Tomasa Guardo welcomed the attendees with her battlecry, “Motindog an mga bolinao! (Anchovies stand up!)  Three quarters of the almost 3,000 audience stood up, shouting, “bolinao! bolinao!)  At a prayer rally held by the church, the LGU, and Environmental groups on the 25^th of September, the mayor asked her audience to come to the MMDC EIA Consultation with all their relatives, like schools of “bolinao” to overwhelm the “patings” (sharks), meaning the pro-mining groups.  The mayor was greeted with “bolinao” everytime she ended a statement favoring the farmers and the environment.

MMDC through their consultants briefly presented their Project and the EIA Study/Findings Response to Issues and Concerns during scoping. One of the concerns of the two barangays surveyed, Consuelo and Cabangahan, was the issue of jobs.  MMDC promised them job priority.  According to Vice President del Pilar, MMDC will only have 100 jobs initially then as the operation progresses, 300 jobs at the most.  Brgy. Cabangahan where the mining operation is located didn’t raise any issue regarding the environment except that they want responsible mining. Brgy. Consuelo where the mineral stockpiling will be located raised the issue about dust.  MMDC’s answer was very simple: dust will be addressed or prevented by the company.  There was no technical information as to how that would done.  Madrid declared that their farmers do not want mining in the area because it will destroy the irrigation systems and the Carac-an River.  They were also worried about landslides and damage to the environment.  MMDC’s response: hire qualified local residents for monitoring team; make erosion and siltation facilities to protect the irrigation systems; will pay for all the timber they will cut (which was met with derisive laughs from the audience); and although they didn’t raise the issue of jobs, priority employment.  To the issues raised by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Tandag Branch and the farmers association regarding the irrigation systems, MMDC proposed mitigating systems to protect them

Engr. Jun Banaay of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) responded with a presentation that showed the company’s mitigating sytem’s (siltation pond) design “was inadequate and the mitigating systems ineffective.” In planning the siltation ponds, MMDC’s consultants used Surigao City’s daily maximum rainfall data of 140 mm in calculating the ponds’ capacity.  Surigao City is a typhoon prone city but Cantilan is a flood prone town.  NIA’s daily rainfall record shows a range of 140-330 mm in the rainy months of December to March.

To Bishop Odchimar’s and Baywatch’s issues regarding damage to the watershed and to coastal resources, MMDC responded: 1) the watershed is not proclaimed that is why the MPSA was granted to the company, 2) the mining operations will not affect the coastal resources because there won’t be mine tailings because its not a processing operation. The NIA for years, had been requesting the President of the Philippines and the DENR to proclaim the Surigao del Sur area as watershed for their irrigation systems.

Responsible mining was the theme of the company.  Posters proclaiming it were spread all over the gym.  At the open forum, SB member Hon. Jeannette Palang asked Edilberto del Pilar, Vice President of MMDC why the company failed to mention the irrigation systems in their MPSA application and at the Technical Conference where she was present, he was heard to say “I didn’t know there was irrigation in Cantilan.”  He denied saying it and told the audience that he’s been a resident of Cantilan for a long time and he knows of the irrigation systems.  Hon. Palang read MMDC’s Environmental Work Program stating that the area was planted to coconuts, vegetables, “corn and rain-fed rice.”  Dr. Dodo Olan, Lovers of Nature President told the audience that he could not trust the company because of its history as a logging company; that del Pilar tried to stop him from reporting it as a monitoring team member by offering him a share of the illegally cut logs which he refused.  Baywatch President, Emma Hotchkiss made a personal comment to Asec. Jeremiah L. Dolino after his explanation of what responsible mining is,  “from our experiences with DENR officials and this company in regards to its treatment of the issues that we raised, I can say that responsible mining is an oxymoron.”

Two pro-mining persons were able to ask their statements, one was Brgy. Captain Ampo of Cabangahan who exalted the company as a blessing to his barrio; the other was a Pastor who asked a slightly threatening question: “If the LGU will not issue a business permit to the company once the Environmental Clearance Certificate is issued, is it legally liable?”  The LGU has been very openly saying it won’t issue a business permit to the mining company.

The last speaker, Mr. Samuel Evangelio, President of the Student Council at the Saint Michael’s College, asked the panel one question to which he wanted each of them to answer: “Which is important to you, money or life?”  It was dismissed as a philosophical question.

Part of the ECC approval is Social Acceptability.  The bolinaos showed the EMB they don’t want mining in their area.

For Details, Contact:

Emma Y. Hotchkiss

Cell Phone: 0906-352-3018

Email: emmayh@yahoo.com