Rehab

Perhaps the entire archipelago is in urgent need of a Boracay-style rehab.

The grotesque tragedy still unfolding in Itogon, Benguet underscores the extent of environmental degradation resulting from many years of weak governance. In many areas like Itogon, communities literally live under the shadow of sudden death.

The mountainsides around Itogon are honeycombed with innumerable tunnels dug by illegal mining activity. At some point, landslides cease becoming a possibility. They become a certainty.

As in Boracay, the local government abdicated the role of enforcer in order to ensure public safety. Local officials became partners in crime. Local executives often put up the capital for illegal mining operations.

Illegal small-scale mining activities “benefit” from evading registration. They do not have to go through the long and expensive process of acquiring a permit, including environmental compliance certification. They do not have to bring their loot to the formal market and thus evade taxation. The illegal miners and their partners in the local government retain the entire value of whatever they mine. All they need for capital is a shovel.

It is enticing business model. But it results in small-scale mining running amuck, producing the obvious environmental hazards.

Itogon is not an isolated case. The same chaos of informal mining activities happened in Paracale town in Camarines Norte. When the gold ran out, the erstwhile miners turned to a life of crime.

Then there is the case of Diwalwal, where a horde of powerbrokers from surrounding areas joined the gold rush. They brought in their private armies to protect their operations. Lawlessness was supreme. Wars broke out among the speculators. The situation deteriorated so much, the military was sent in and de facto military rule was imposed.

Much of the gold extracted from Diwalwal disappeared into the black market. In order to evade the taxes imposed by the state, gold was pilfered out through our southern backdoor. The political moguls who financed the illegal mining operations earned immense profits.

When gold is found in some illegal mine, people tend to flock to the area, build ramshackle communities in the places where they dig, and end up being most exposed to the environmental hazards the activity creates. It is hard to stop the horde of gold speculators – especially if the local government is in on the racket.

Controlling the large mining enterprises is easy. Government policies their methods and shuts down their operations if they violate the conditions of their mining contracts.

But small-scale and communal mining operations are a lot harder to control. They happen in the remotest areas where national government presence is nil. They are sometimes protected by private armed groups or rebel platoons seeking to take a cut from the racket.

The challenges to curtailing illegal mining activities may seem huge. But it must remain among the priorities of governance – for the sake of the environment and the poor communities too blinded by prospecting to look after their own safety.

Absentee

The DILG is investigating at least ten mayors in the calamity zone reported to have abandoned their posts when the typhoon neared. The consequence of this is to make local governments not only figuratively but literally absent when they are most needed.

Local governments constitute the frontline both in the enforcement of environmental regulations and in disaster response. This is the reason why, over the past so many years, much has been invested in building capacity for our smallest political units to be effective.

When calamity strikes, the local chief executive transforms into the ground commander for the first responders. He orders the evacuation of his people when the situation requires. He orchestrates rescue teams and oversees the relief effort. He makes a quick assessment of the needs in his area and relays this assessment to higher authorities. When necessary, the local government declares a state of calamity over its jurisdiction.

An absentee mayor is therefore unforgivable. In the military, deserting one’s post in the midst of battle is a crime of the highest order. The same severity of punishment should be reserved for mayors found to have abandoned their posts while the typhoon ravaged.

While at it, the DILG should take a closer, unforgiving look at the local executives who abetted rather than restrained those activities that rendered hazardous areas even more so. There will be a lot to uncover along this line of inquiry.

P14 billion

Before Ompong struck, it was forecast crop losses could amount to P7 billion. Now, in the wake of this severe storm, the working estimate of crop losses is P14 billion – double the forecast.

The volume of crop destruction is understandable. The Cagayan Valley is a major corn and rice producer. Benguet, for its part, supplies much of the vegetables consumed in northern and central Luzon.

True enough, we saw a price spike in vegetable prices in the days following Ompong’s onslaught. Crop damage was compounded by the blockage of roads coming down to the lowlands.

The crop damage will surely aggravate the inflation rate for this month. Over the past few months, food supply shocks played a major role in pushing up the inflation rate.

Our economic managers, however, seem confident the inflation rate will relax in the last quarter of this year. Increased remittance inflow from our migrant labor force and more tightening efforts of the BSP will help shore up the peso’s exchange value. The onset of the harvest season, supplemented by increased importation of buffer stocks, should ease supply-side pressures on the inflation rate.