Our thoughts on the mining industry

It seems that Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Gina Lopez has been “bypassed” by the Commission on Appointments (CA) simply because she has been perceived as an “anti-mining” advocate, even if no less than President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte has given his unbridled support for the beleaguered Environment Secretary.

This only proves that there is a huge “lobby” money coming from the mining industry and it also has the support of many legislators in Congress.

I personally like and support Sec. Gina Lopez and her temerity to take on the big guns of the mining industry and those who violate our environmental laws.

However she failed to take into account that mining has been here for decades and that the issue on the environment only came into the nation’s consciousness 20 years or less ago. It would have been totally different if mining only came to our shores a decade ago!

We in Cebu played host to the Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp. (ACMDC) since the Commonwealth time when we were under America. I submit that Atlas Mining created a huge kilometers in diameter hole on the middle of the Island of Cebu called the Bigaa Pit and it was only later that we realized that the landscape of Cebu was scarred or defaced. But what do most people remember about Atlas Mines was that it had a great hospital (my uncle, Dr. Oliverio “Tio Oc” Segura was the number two medical officer of that facility) and yes, Atlas Mines had Cebu’s only De La Salle High School.

Twenty years ago Atlas shut down because of labor problems.

I’m not into the business of mining and I’m sure my shares in Atlas Mines are a worthless piece of paper. But I do agree with Finance Sec. Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III who said, "We have to realize that in daily life we need mining products. If you want a cell phone, you need a mine. You want a car, you need a mine. You want gasoline, you need a mining activity. You want cement, you need a mining activity. So it's not a question of one or the other. You need some of mining or else we might as well go back to the Stone Age." 

Now that Pres. Duterte has revealed that he is against mining and has backed Gina Lopez to the hilt, may I therefore exhort them to seriously look into that epic “no man’s” mining land called Mt. Diwalwal, where thousands of people look for gold every day!

We know that in the US, they put their gold bullion reserves in Fort Knox. But in Mt. Diwalwal, the Philippines has an abundance of gold, but unfortunately the gold found there doesn’t end in the nation’s Central Bank, but rather it is smuggled out to places like Hong Kong where unscrupulous traders create a market for this gold.

Mt. Diwalwal is “uncontrolled” mining (actually it is controlled by armed groups) where for sure the environment has also been destroyed and the gold has not help enrich our people and our country.

So if Sec. Gina Lopez can take on the big mining companies, stopping the operations in Mt. Diwalwal should be her greatest challenge at the DENR.

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I got hold of a 4-page letter sent to Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Director Catalino E. Chan, III by Plantation Bay Resort owner Emmanuel Gonzales dated last Feb.28, 2017 on a topic of the DOT’s Star Rating Program that was a “hot potato” when it first appeared in the Year 2014. As I read through the letter of Mr. Gonzales, I realized that it was about the same Star Rating that we wrote extensively in many column two-years ago where we opposed the DOT’s Star Rating program simply because in today’s instant communications, Internet Travel Advisors, like Agoda, TripAdvisor, Expedia or Hotels.com are doing much better in rating all the hotels in the world through their vast worldwide clientele.

We exposed the DOT on their Star Rating program, especially that it got a $ 7 million funding from the Canadian government which doesn’t have their own hotel rating program and worse, these monies were spent to private companies in Australia. This issue was subject to an investigation by the House Committee on Tourism and both Cebuano members of Congress, Rep. Raul del Mar and Rep. Gwendolyn F. Garcia came up with a motion suspending the implementation of the DOT’s star rating scheme.

I understand that there were corruption cases filed before the Office of the Ombudsman but we don’t have any idea at what stage are these cases in? Lest you have forgotten, the Office of the Ombudsman has a soft-heart for officials during the Aquino Regime, which is probably the reason why these cases are not moving in the Office of the Ombudsman. Let me just say it here that we opposed the Star Rating program two years ago under the Aquino Regime, we still oppose its implementation even under the Duterte administration. Perhaps DOT’s Sec. Wanda Teo doesn’t know about these filed cases. I suggest that she should consult her tourism adviser Mr. Robert “Bobby” Joseph so she could be appraised of the situation in the DOT.

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