The role of media to inform the public about mining; What Gibo and others must do

After recriminations came regrets. At the end of the conference both the PBSP represented by Rafael C. Lopa and the Chamber of Mines president Philip Romualdez admitted they have been remiss about communicating with each other. They will now organize a group to liaise between government, mining companies and NGOs concerned with environments.

I was tempted to raise my hand at the close of the conference that ended on a harmonious note to say that media plays an important role in communications. It is not just the lack of communication between government and mining companies that is the problem. Indeed misunderstanding arose because of the lack of public awareness making ordinary people unaware of issues and falling easy prey to vested interests. Media has the obligation to know the facts and convey these to the public.

I had a long chat with Mark Williams, general manager for operations and external relations of Sagittarius Mines in Tampakan Copper Gold Mines in Southern Mindanao. It is probably the biggest mining project in the Philippines today.

 To show their good intent the group has already sunk in millions of pesos to develop the communities in the mining area providing schools, a medical center and agricultural livelihood projects even before they have dug up an ounce of copper or gold. It seems SMI is providing the infrastructure that government has failed to provide Filipinos living in outlying areas like Tampakan. This will continue even after mining the area has been finished.

 “If approved, it would be the largest mine in the Philippines and among the largest copper mines in the world,” he said.

SMI sends this column a news bulletin regularly to keep track of the work they do for the community. It has a proven track record. It received the sustainable development award from the Dow Jones Index for the fifth year that makes it top of its class among multinational mining companies.

“The social license to operate is very important to Sagittarius Mines and that comes from our parent company, Xstrata Copper, owned by Xstrata PLC. Our philosophy comes from high up and is part of the integrity of everything we do within Sagittarius Mines. We commit and invest significant funds in sustainable development today for our community relations projects, education, capacity building and environment and health.”

But to Mark Williams the most important aspect of their community development work is the funding for 18,000 children to attend school.

“Education in the Philippines is free, other than miscellaneous charges. It is these charges that we pay for. There are slots available for teachers as sometimes the local government does not have the funds to pay for them, so this year we will step in and contribute to the funding of 18 teachers.”

But as I told Mark, he could say what he wanted in praise of SMI but until we see it and talk to the people themselves I would reserve comment.

So next week, a media group will go to Tampakan and see the community development projects. After meeting with the people and local government officials, then we can have a more concrete basis for assessing what SMI does for Tampakan that would eventually benefit the entire country. We hope that Tampakan could become a model for mining in the Philippines.

There is no question that there are legitimate environmental concerns. 

“A commitment to ethical behavior underpins all our actions,” he said and cites world class recognition for responsible mining.

SMI has also held public consultation meetings in the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Malungon in Sarangani earlier this month and more recently in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat,” he said.

The upshot is SMI undertakes development that cannot be done by government for lack of funds. As Mark Williams told me he has been in other parts of the world but this is probably the most challenging project. It is like developing a township with roads, water and electricity from scratch.

But he says it is all worth it because, Filipinos, especially the poor, in these outlying areas, without schools and medical centers, are grateful that they now have opportunities they would not have if there had been no mining project in the area.

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It is good that Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has now returned to the public scene. He spoke before government employees at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila College of Law.

Gibo has many fans, most of them young Filipinos, who considered him as the best and brightest among the candidates in the last elections. It helps that he is also young.

But although I think he is great, I would give an unsolicited advice that he concentrate his energies on structural change. This is not politicking but public information. He spoke about “perspective” and there cannot be one more important than this. This is the single, most necessary step for economic and political reform.

My concern is that Gibo, being an attractive personality, may divert us from the task and duty of real change that the country needs. We may be back to square one –- the politics of personality and popularity.

Being an intelligent man, Gibo knows what must be done. He should begin party building seriously asap. He has many fans in Facebook. That can be a good start to bring in fresh blood into our politics. Most importantly he must not be intimidated by vested interests that will destroy the campaign for real change even before it has begun.

Better still if it is not merely Gibo who should stand up and be counted as a candidate for constitutional reform. All the other candidates who lost in the last election must now realize we have a lousy system of government that will corrupt anybody even with the best of intentions.

Senators Manny Villar and former Senator Richard Gordon would do well to come out openly that unless we restructure our system of governance we are bound to fail. They should represent parties with programs of government.

Karl Popper, the guru of open democracy, said the qualities and promises of candidates are irrelevant if we do not have the mechanism to remove them from office peacefully and quickly when they fail to do their job. Whether it is Gibo, Manny or Dick does not matter. What matters is their program of government and the will to see it through.

All three of them and their followers can kick start the campaign for reform if they were to support the Enrile-Belmonte bill as a step towards constitutional reform through a legislative process. It is my opinion that it will be more mature than projecting their personalities yet again on a hapless electorate.