Coup

There is just so much verbal abuse a man can take.

After suffering in dignified silence in the face of the rampant presidential mouth, Chief Justice Renato Corona pushed back last Wednesday with a strongly-worded speech before a crowd of judges, lawyers and court personnel. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines threw its support behind the Chief Justice, considering the bizarre turn of events as a threat to the independence of the judicial branch of government.

In the sphere of the social media, the tide appears to have turned in favor of Corona despite the frantic efforts of the cyber-bullies of the Palace communications group. There is definitely rising concern over the future of the separation of powers, the principal check against autocratic rule.

Corona dismissed as lies the charges listed in the impeachment complaint. He propounded on his central theme: that this effort to take him out is an assault on an independent judiciary. Should it succeed, this effort will produce an autocracy in the form of presidential power unchecked by a pliant legislature and a terrorized judiciary.

For days, Edwin Lacierda lied to us, insisting the President had no hand in the impeachment effort, that this was entirely an initiative of the House. Congressional leaders themselves eventually volunteered that truth: the President directed the whole effort. This explains the indecent haste and procedural crudeness with which the operation was carried out, leading to the resignation of Dodo Mandanas and Toby Tiangco from the ruling coalition.

After the CJ spoke on Wednesday, Lacierda declared the jurist “had no right” to warn of Aquino’s dictatorial design. That was such a Freudian slip. In a democracy, every citizen, let alone the Chief Justice, owns the right to say what his reasoned assessment leads him to. This early, Lacierda is denying him his constitutional right.

The commencement of the impeachment trial itself puts the separation of powers on uneven keel. For the duration of the trial, the Senate (especially the veteran power-players installed therein) will wield great power and, as we saw in the Erap impeachment, will exact every opportunity to augment their leverage. There will be many concessions yielded in the wings.

There appears to be a larger game plan, however.

In the impeachment euphoria, a triumphant Niel Tupas declared two more justices will be put to the impeachment block. Leila de Lima, attempting to do her part in verbally jousting with the CJ, indulged in some amount of demagoguery. She declared a crusade to reclaim the Supreme Court “for the people.”

What these two are saying is that the larger plan is to decimate the ranks of justices, presumably the most independent and unyielding (called “pro-Gloria” justices in the propagandistic terminology of the administration). The end result can only mean the subordination of the judiciary to an imperial executive, assisted by a pliant legislative branch.

This may rightly be called a coup. Corona is therefore right, even if Lacierda denies him the right to say so, in warning against creeping dictatorship.

EITI

While other countries are putting out ads claiming to be the most mining-friendly in the world, we are seeing here a frenetic campaign to close down the mining industry.

This campaign resorted to twisting the facts, such as making the astounding claim that mining increases poverty. That was a claim achieved by blurring the vital distinction between areas where highly-organized and well-capitalized mining operations occur and those where the equivalent of kaingin mining proliferates. 

The anti-mining campaign also conveniently fails to mention a global initiative among mining enterprises that will ensure more accountable and more socially responsible operations. This global initiative among mining companies, governments and non-government organizations seeks to install new mechanisms of accountability and governance, involving all stakeholders where possible. It is called the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).

All the major mining companies in the Philippines support the EITI. Steps have been taken to expand the mechanisms of consultation and accountability to ensure the operations are even more sensitive to the need to protect the environment, remediate the land, grow the forests and directly benefit the surrounding communities.

The Mining Act of 1995 is a well-crafted law that has become the standard for environmentally-conscious mining regulation all over the world. The law not only mandates the highest standards of social and ecological safety, it commands the mining companies to remediate the land even as mining operations happen.

The EITI will further supplement what is already an adequate legal framework. That can only reinforce environmental protection, enhance social benefits and mitigate hazards. It will also help calm the anxieties of those who reflexively associate mining with environmental destruction.

Considering how vital mining revenues are to pulling our economy out of the rut of low growth, both the mining companies and the non-government organizations should work together with a little more urgency to develop the accountability mechanisms of the EITI. The development of our mining sector has been stunted by a decade of legal wrangling over the Mining Act and then the presently prevailing climate of policy confusion. We have not been attracting the volume of investments the economy needs and the level of production our rich deposits are capable of delivering quickly to boost our growth.

It does not help that there is so much unfounded fear of mining among the public. That unfounded fear is to large extent fanned by the distorted information peddled anti-mining advocates who have long closed their minds to the possibility of a functioning arrangement that pleases all stakeholders.