Zambales ruling means protection against Chinese miners elsewhere

The Supreme Court ban on destructive mining in Zambales is a signal to community environmentalists nationwide. Now they too can seek the Tribunal’s protection against mines that ruin forests, waterways, and the air, and harm people’s health in their locales. It is momentous for opponents of Chinese miners and modern-day Makapili collaborators, that is, Filipino dummies and local government officials.

The Zambales ruling is a temporary environment protection order (TEPO) against 94 nickel mines in Sta. Cruz and Masinloc municipalities. Ten Masinloc townsmen denounced the mines, at least five of which are Chinese-owned, for illegally operating outside the designated “minahang bayan (people’s mines). The SC referred the case Tuesday to the Court of Appeals. Should the latter uphold the complaint, the TEPO will become permanent.

Residents of Northern Luzon and Eastern Visayas too have been decrying Chinese extractors of black sand from their seashores. Abetted by provincial, municipal, or barangay officials, the foreigners overturn mangroves and fishing grounds, thus further impoverishing coastal folk.

Magnetite is derived from the black sand, essential for Chinese jewelry, paper, ink, CDs, and home stereos. It is also used for navigation and communications equipment. In naval and spying systems the magnetite become Chinese weapons to grab Philippine territorial waters.

A Chinese armada recently held naval exercises off the Batanes Isles, after provocatively sailing near Brunei, Malaysia, and Palawan. In the voyage unusually publicized by Beijing, the sailors were made to pledge allegiance to the communist rulers leading China’s military rise.

Lian Xing Stone Carving Co. operates in Cagayan, and Nicua Mining in Leyte. Both have Filipino fronts that obtained mineral production sharing agreements from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The renamed Chinese firms also wangled small-scale mining permits from local execs.

The law bars the transfer of MPSAs, in part or full. Prohibited as well are unrestricted, unreported, and untaxed mineral extractions.

Anchored a distance from shore, Chinese ships suck in the black sand with huge, long hoses. The bribed local officials do not check the volume of extractions, virtually abetting the plunder.

Destroyed in the process are mangrove forests that host shellfish, fowl, and edible plants. Spoiled as well are coastal fishing areas, driving fishermen farther out to sea even during storms.

The Chinese sand haulers abound in Cagayan’s Gonzaga town. Early this month the Mines and Geosciences Bureau suspended Lian Xing and a Filipino counterpart for operating outside their concessions facing the Balintang Channel to the Pacific Ocean.

Swiftly Taiwanese ships moved into Camiguin Isle in the Babuyan Chain, part of Cagayan’s Calayan town. Up to last week two Taiwanese vessels alternately were siphoning sand.

Chinese and Taiwanese pillagers have invaded as well the shores of Sanchez Mira, Pamplona, Abulug, Buguey, Aparri, and Ballesteros towns. Reports have it that some foreign vessels have tried extracting in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and Pangasinan facing the West Philippine Sea.

Air and sea pollution in Sta. Cruz and Masinloc, Zambales, have affected remote Infanta town in Pangasinan. The mountains have been leveled for nickel ore, so watersheds and rivers have been poisoned.

Thousands of dump trucks swarm the highways and byroads leading to the single pier of the five Chinese mines. Ore dust, explosives, and tailpipe emissions blacken the three towns. The health department has noted yearly increasing incidence of acute respiratory infections, while the DENR has monitored suspended particulates up to nine times the tolerable level.

Shipped to China at a rate of four bulk carriers a week, the nickel is used in various goods, including weapons and surveillance systems. China uses these to sabotage the Philippine economy and military.

Last year China occupied Bajo de Masinloc shoal, 124 miles from Masinloc town. Traditional Filipino fishing grounds, the collection of rocks and reefs is well within the Philippine 200-mile exclusive economic zone, but 800 miles from China’s southernmost Hainan province. China invaded Mischief Reef off Palawan in 1995, and is circling to grab nearby Ayungin Shoal, both also within the Philippine EEZ under the UN.

Due to the mine pollution of the coastal waters, fishermen from Zambales and Pangasinan need to sail to Bajo de Masinloc. But Chinese vessels there shell them away, with weapons with Philippine nickel.

Ostensibly “small-scale” for subsistence miners with picks and shovels, the Zambales mines actually are large-scale, using sophisticated excavators, haulers, crushers, and explosives. The giants Jiangxi Rare Earth & Metals Tungsten Group, Wei-Wei Group, and Nihao Mineral Resources Inc. own the five Chinese mines disguised as “small-scale.”

The SC TEPO cites Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane, DENR Sec. Ramon Paje, the provincial mining board, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Philippine National Police.

The Masinloc complainants said Ebdane signed 93 “small-scale” mining permits in one day alone on July 12, 2011, all allegedly outside the prescribed area for such subsistence mines. To justify the grants, Ebdane invoked a Marcos presidential decree, which, the residents aver, has been superseded by the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991.

Paje was named in the TEPO for issuing a DENR memo to the effect that the old decree and the repealing law can exist side-by-side. The police have been cited for escorting Jiangxi Group trucks and guarding mine gates.

The DENR admits that rampant miners undervalue, mis-declare, and illegal export to China. Chinese operators masquerade as small-scale in order to skirt stricter scrutiny, regulation, and taxation under national laws. In 2008 alone, at least three million tons of mineral ores processed in China were unaccounted for by Philippine-based suppliers.

Chinese miners blatantly flout government edicts. Last year the SC issued a Writ of Kalikasan (Environment) against LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc. The Chinese firm continues to level a hill in Sta. Cruz, says the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, because the prohibition supposedly covers only its port construction.

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