CBCP anti-mining call is at best Quixotic!

Because she has done a lot for Cebu City, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) has been formally declared as an "Adopted Daughter" of Cebu, a distinction that would be bestowed on her this coming Charter Day. Of course, she's in good company with people like Philippine Star Publisher Manong Max Soliven and yes, even her political rival, Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson. For you jokers out there, let me point out that this is not in preparation for making Cebu a State although that would be a grand idea.

That it had to take a Pres. Arroyo to move the coming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit to Cebu is something unheard of in the past, where everything big that ever happened in this country happened only in Manila. Under GMA, she has shared many events to us in Cebu, starting with her historical oath-taking at the steps of the Cebu Provincial Capitol. This alone made us all the more proud of the President, despite what the political opposition says about here.

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Yesterday's editorial of the Philippine Star was entitled, "Causionary Voices" in reaction to the call by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to repeal the Mining Act, and stop all mining activities. In truth, this is a "quixotic" call because for as long as the earth gives out her treasures, people will find ways to extract where it can be found. Now who was it that said that the materials used in the Holy Mass like a golden chalice or one that is made of brass came from someone's mining operations.

Totally against the CBCP call is the nation's largest labor organization the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which strongly objected to this call by the Catholic Bishops because it stands to lose a lot of the jobs that its members belong. I'm sure that the members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) the rival of the TUCP also feels the same way.

There is no question that mining industry have given jobs to many people who cannot find work elsewhere. But this is not to close our eyes to the reality that the down side of mining is more often than not, it damages the environment. To us in Cebu, if we heeded this call, that would mean that we have to stop the operations of cement plants in our province; after all, extracting cement is a kind of mining operations because it comes from our soil. That also means that any plans to revive the Atlas Mines will go to naught and forgotten.

Perhaps the CBCP should be given the bigger picture about mining in the Philippines. Too often, someone makes a case before the CBCP and when it is adopted, who knows it can ruin the lives of many, including corrupt officials. I just learned about the story of a Cebu Congressman who refused to support a mining operation and in the end, the operator had to find the material for his company in faraway Bohol.

In lieu of their call to stop mining operations, I suggest that the CBCP tone this done to demand mining operators to strictly follow the regulations of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) so that toxic waste extracted from the underground can be properly processed and cause no potential harm to our citizenry.

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I expected that the political and personal friends of beleaguered Mayor Celestino "Tining" Martinez III to openly declare their support for him in his dark moments. My "agaw" Jose Mari Miranda, President of the Bogo-Medellin Sugarcane Planters Association showed his deep concern when he said, "If this can be done to a mayor, how much more with the ordinary citizens?" Let me say it here that I share the same apprehension. But on the other side of the coin, perhaps we should find out how many municipal mayors were implicated in a similar crime? So far, I don't recall of any.

What compounds the problem of Mayor Tining is that, the accusations hurled against him comes from one who says that he used to head the Mayor's squad in Bogo. Whether we like it or not, these are serious accusations that we have to ask the courts to get into the truth. No amount of denial can get Mayor Tining off the hook, even if many of us believe in his innocence. His only way out is to clear his name in our courts.

I understand that the Land Bank robbery was orchestrated by a team of 12 people. Perhaps this should be a lesson to would-be bank robbers in the future that if you want to rob a bank and don't want to be caught, then you do it yourself so you will be the only one who knows that you robbed a bank. Having 12 people involved in a robbery is 12 people too much!

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