the church & the open pit ban, page-2

Mayor bares mine's economic benefit

By MARVYN N. BENANING

July 19, 2011, 12:45pm

MANILA, Philippines ? The farming town of Tampakan, South Cotabato is pinning its hopes on the operation of the copper-gold project of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) to boost its revenues, reduce the high unemployment rate and arrest the high dropout rate in its schools.

Mayor Leonardo Escobillo, an engineer, said that with farming as its main activity, Tampakan rose from a 6th class municipality to a 2nd class municipality.

On Tuesday, he revealed, the municipality has already extended free education to elementary school pupils and high school students, and noted that SMI has supported his administration in providing universal education to the youth.

SMI has helped us in this, Escobillo said, and 9,200 students benefit from the joint P5.6-million scholarship program in three B'laan communities.

Tampakan has 32 schools for a population of only 33,000, with 20 percent of them belonging to indigenous communities like the B'laan.

Its internal revenue allotment (IRA) was P77 million in 2009 but this increased to P95 million in December 2010.

We expect to break the P100-million barrier this year, he said.

"While the impact of SMI has not been big since it is not yet engaged in full mining operations, what is important to us is the help extended by the company, particularly its social and development projects," Escobillo said.

"As of now, the impact of SMI operation is not even 5 percent as far as agriculture is concerned," he added.

In a related development, a regional evangelist church leader has called on the South Cotabato Catholic Church leadership to be open to modern ways of mining.

?The Catholic Church?s opposition against the open-pit mining method is only a matter of adjusting to the modern concept of responsible mining? says Pastor Ben Barnuevo, speaking before local South Cotabato media last week.
Barnuevo is South Central Mindanao Ministry Director and South Mindanao District Minister for the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines (CAMACOP).

Pastor Barnuevo also admitted that we can never do away with the benefits of mining and its products.

CAMACOP is one of the largest evangelical groups in the Philippines with a roster of 2,917 local churches all over the country, according to its records.

The Tampakan copper-gold project is currently in peril after the South Cotabato provincial government, allegedly due to very strong pressure from the local Catholic Church, passed an environment code banning open-pit mining in the entire province.

?I recommend a review of the environment code and I hope they let us participate in the review?, Pastor Barnuevo said.

Aside from the Tampakan project, a proposed coal mine project in Tboli, and the local quarrying industry in South Cotabato have felt the impact of the ban.

Although the code has yet to take full effect pending the required publication of its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), there are reports that the provincial government has stopped processing new applications for quarrying permits.

Pastor Barnuevo, however, clarified that as far as he knows the Catholic Church as a whole is not against mining. The pastor even noted Biblical teachings on responsible development of our minerals such iron and copper.

?The South Cotabato Catholic Church just needs re-assurance that modern responsible mining exists?, Pastor Barnuevo said.

Insisting that the Tampakan project should continue, Pastor Barnuevo reminded that it is everyone?s role to ensure that responsible mining is practiced and observed in the province.

Meanwhile, Escobillo said he attended a recent hearing on the matter of protecting Mt. Matutum along with officials of South Cotabato like Rep. Daisy Avance and other congressmen precisely to know how it can be protected, with problems cropping up on the exact technical descriptions of the areas covered.
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