Charter Change intended to defend anti-Filipino Mining Act
Among the deceitful Malacañang agenda to amend the 1987
Constitution is to pave the way to intensified environment and economic
degradation due to liberalized mining.
We firmly believe that Arroyo’s charter change drive also
aims to add more teeth to the already notorious 1995 Philippine Mining Act
(Republic Act 7942), that the Supreme Court again affirmed last year. The
decision of the high tribunal declaring the constitutionality of Section 76 of
R.A. 7942 and its implementing rules and regulations was expected.
However, no amount of touted revenues and compensation can
pay for the permanent damage to the environment, the displacement of indigenous
communities, and the loss of lives and livelihood that will result from
large-scale mining.
It is frustrating that the lessons from our people’s tragic
experiences with large-scale foreign mining in Boac, Marinduque, Siocon,
Zamboanga del Norte, Rapu-rapu, Albay, Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya, Surigao del
Norte, and other areas are ignored by the national government. It should be
noted, however, that no measures have been put in place to reverse the
continuing damage to the environs and people of the said areas.
We challenge the Supreme Court justices to go to these areas
and see for themselves what the local communities have lost: indigenous
peoples’ ancestral domain, once productive farmlands, pristine rivers, and
marine ecosystems. This may help them see the anti-Filipino and
anti-environment nature of RA 7942.
The full-blown implementation of a liberalized, privatized,
and deregulated mining industry will come into reality once charter change has
been enacted. The constitutional overhaul will allow 100% foreign-ownership of
our lands and the exploitation of our natural resources. Charter change will actually
further open the country to unbridled foreign exploitation and plunder
Under the current Constitution, land ownership is reserved
for Filipinos so that our people should have the priority to develop our
resources for the good of the country.
The proposed Constitutional amendments for liberalization
will further aggravate landlessness, land-use conversion, the whole-sale
exploitation of our natural resources, food insecurity, and the destruction of
the environment. Filipinos will be deprived of the right to use the country’s
resources for their own benefit. Local industry and agriculture, which cannot
compete with big multinational companies, will also be destroyed.
We will heighten opposition to the Arroyo-engineered Charter
Change and continue to work for an alternative people’s mining policy. #
