I’VE read the Bastes report and the dissenting opinion of one of...

I’VE read the Bastes report and the dissenting opinion of one of its commissioners, Greg Tabuena. There’s a sense of unreality here.

How on earth can anyone take the Arturo Bastes-led report seriously? Here is a man of the cloth who is supposed to have strong Christian values of ethics and honesty coming out with a supposedly independent, scientific study that is anything but.

And here is a government that is tiptoeing around the report, hesitant to junk it because doing so may upset some people. Let it! These people deserve no cognizance. They are deliberately distorting and exaggerating a minor incident to try and stop mining in the Philippines, not just at Rapu-Rapu, which is the sole mandate of the commission.

Bastes even had the hide to admit it wasn’t scientific. He said: “Our studies were not scientific like those of the experts [from University of the Philippines and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources]. We focus on the historical background and on our personal knowledge but we come up with scientific findings.” How on earth can you come up with scientific findings when you don’t use scientific methods? He explained how by claiming, “We are endowed with knowledge by our Creator. Our conscience dictates and the historical background could assure us of our findings. We follow our conscience, that’s why when we decide, we are sure we will not falter.”

I presume Bastes still believes in the old unscientific Church belief that the world is flat. If we are, indeed, endowed with knowledge by our Creator, why do we need to go to school?

Deuteronomy 8:7-10

(New International Version)

(7) For the LORD your GOD is bringing you into a good land—a land with stream and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills;

(8) A land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;

(9) A land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

(10) When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your GOD for the good land he has given you.

I wonder if Bishop Bastes read this particular verse of the Bible. I have to presume not, because it seems quite clear that God wanted us to benefit from the riches of the land. “You can dig copper out of the hills.” What could be clearer than that? Or does the Bishop take it strictly as written—so iron and copper are OK to dig out, but not other metals?

Does he, I wonder, wear a gold ring?

And, yes, I am being sarcastic. This man deserves all the sarcasm one can muster. As Mr. Tabuena, in his well-prepared Dissenting Report said, “With all due respect to my fellow Commissioners, the Commission did not appear to have observed the proper procedure for conducting an objective, fact-finding and scientific study. The deliberation itself was flawed because discussions were done, not as a collegial body, but was dominated by two or three members of the Commission… The Report was then circulated to the other members of the Commission for signature late in the afternoon of May 18. Some members of the Commission, in fact, attended only two to three deliberations. Opinions contrary to the desired outcome, even when based on empirical data or scientific analyses, were vigorously opposed.”

The Bastes report was neither impartial nor objective. Fortunately, the government, in the main, agreed and rejected most of it, but has still hesitated to allow Lafayette to start test runs. This hesitation may lead to the loss of the mining industry to the Philippines.

If Lafayette mine on Rapu-Rapu is forced to close, which it may have to do any day now, you can kiss mining goodbye as a sector of great opportunity for the Philippines. This is neither an exaggeration nor scare-mongering. This is just good common sense. No sensible businessman will invest in a country (where it took over six months to handle something that would have been handled in six weeks in any other place) where his investment can be treated so cavalierly.

And it won’t be just mining but other sectors, too. Foreign investors will be very wary of investing where a government doesn’t fairly treat its compatriots and resolve their problems swiftly.

Lafayette has made the necessary changes, and thus should have been reopened months ago. But the government is still holding back.

This means Mr. Bastes has won. Even if the government approves the reopening of Lafayette, the investors have already pulled the plug, and his goal has been achieved. The mine is closed. Other mining companies will get the message—a delayed result is as bad as a negative decision.

I believe Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes will agree to a test run under strictly monitored conditions. That’s fine, but he really needs to announce that decision now. He has every reason to do so: Lafayette has complied with all the necessary corrections and controls, has paid the fines imposed on it and even changed its management. It can’t do much more.

The environment department acted properly in closing the mine after the first spill and again after the second spill, demonstrating that the Philippine Mining Act is stringent enough, and that the department is very capable considering the operations were immediately closed after the incidents. In fact, the actions taken were more stringent than in most other countries.

The Bastes report provided no basis for its findings and went well beyond its mandate. The commission showed very clearly the personal animosity to foreign investment generally and to mining more specifically in making a report without credibility.

The government should have no fear of rejecting it because even the chairman admitted they had not used scientific methods in their inquiry. What is critical now is for the government to show firm resolve by reinforcing through swift action its publicly announced policy of encouraging mining development in the Philippines.