New DENR chief alarms environmental groups

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya - Environmental groups have expressed concern over President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's appointment of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) director as acting secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). President Arroyo appointed MGB head Horacio Ramos after the resignation last December of former DENR Secretary Jose "Lito" Atienza Jr. in preparation for his campaign as mayoral candidate in the city of Manila. But members of Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) alleged that the appointment “spells trouble to communities and environmental advocates." Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE said that they expect Ramos to push intensely for the implementation of the government's policies where environmental protection and conservation are only secondary to the sell-out of the country’s natural resources to private and foreign corporations. Director Ramos has been with the MGB since the 1970s during the Marcos dictatorship and was named director of the bureau in 1996 under the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos. According to Bautista, director Ramos’ track record translates to an extensive account of facilitating plunder of the country's mineral resources to foreign corporations and now “greater license to sell out other natural resources." Among the accusations hurled by the Kalikasan PNE against Ramos were his “failures" to protect the environment from pollution and destruction brought about by big mining companies. In their report, the group claimed that there had been about 13 mine tailings dam failures in the Philippines from 1996 to 2007 which released millions of toxic mine wastes. Most controversial is the Marcopper mine spill in Marinduque in 1996 and series of mine spills in Rapu-Rapu, Albay from 2005 to 2007. “Even in the so-called ‘sustainable mining’ propaganda of Arroyo administration, Horacio Ramos failed to rehabilitate mining disaster areas like Rapu-Rapu and Marinduque," informed Bautista. The Philippines is endowed with rich mineral resources but environment activists have alleged that the government's concept of utilizing it is to sell and export it as raw materials to foreign investors and not for the benefit of the Filipino people and country's industrialization. Philippine mining statistics show that the mining gross production value in 2007 was worth P101.5 billion, an increase of 40% from the 2006 production of P72.5 billion, and an increase of 134% from 2004. Based on an initial MGB report, the government collected a total of P5.029 million from the mining sector in 2007, just 5% of the total mineral production value. In the same year, the sector’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was only P18 billion, equivalent to a mere 1.3%. On the other hand, Philex Mining Corp., a partner of mining giant Anglo-American, reported a P1.03 billion net profit for the first quarter of 2008 alone. This, Kalikasan PNE said, means that individual mining companies are raking in more profits than the government. "While local communities are suffering from poverty, environmental degradation, physical and economic displacement and poor health, it is the foreign corporations who are benefiting from our mining industry," Bautista continued, adding that having a DENR secretary whose record embodies a corrupt system leaves little hope for communities and environmentalists pushing for a balance and sustainable ecology. “This is clearly against the interests of our people." In a statement, Bautista told GMANews.TV that the coming months will be crucial in the country’s long environmental struggles as groups fighting for the preservation of the ecosystem, anticipate the acceleration and more intense facilitation of environmental plunder and degradation under President Arroyo and her new DENR appointee. Ramos could not be reached immediately for comment. He joined President Arroyo in Surigao del Norte on Tuesday to visit government projects on solid waste, Ramos' technical staff Manny Banaag informed GMANews.TV. - Floro Taguinod/LBG, GMANews.TV