Would you dare destroy such splendor of Mother Nature?
Photo taken at Abinganan, Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya
As a Novo Vizcayano, I may already be a bit too late in speaking up about the mining issue in our province. This is because I don’t know much about the technicalities involved, and I'd rather keep quiet than speak up about something I do not wholly understand. But I have been following the developments of the mining project, and I am not very happy with how things are turning out.
As a backgrounder, our inconspicuous province has been thrown into the limelight during the past few months because of the Kasibu residents’ continuous resistance against Oceana Gold, the Australian firm who has out-bidded other mining companies to mine Dipidio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya for gold and copper. The Dipidio project is a 320 million US dollar project, and is described by Oceana CEO Steve Orr as "one of the highest grade gold-copper porphyries in the world today,” according to a news report by Yahoo News Asia. Kasibu is located east of Bambang (my hometown), and about 200 kilometers north of Metro Manila.
The Philippine government has given the Australian group the go signal to proceed with the project, but the local government and the Kasibu residents are still barricading the site for different reasons. The local government wants to collect taxes, whereas the residents do not want the work to ever proceed, not only because they will be displaced, but more so because they fear that the project would destroy the province’s natural resources.
I am not one who cares much about gold; I do care more about the preservation of our natural resources. So personally, I do not want the work to proceed.
Many of you may not agree with me, but that’s how I feel about the issue. Nueva Vizcaya is not much of a tourist spot because it’s not well-promoted, but it boasts of a beautiful landscape that only the hand of nature could paint. A land-locked province, it boasts of clear springs, green surroundings, winding rivers, mountains and hills and valleys, rice fields and a cave system. It is the place a weary soul would want to go home to, to get in touched with nature, and to be closer to God.
It is the place I go home to.
No, I would not want to exchange the beauty of my hometown to any amount of gold.
3 comments:
The presumed profits to be made from the mining project will be nothing compared to the expenses that will be incurred for restoration works for future generations to be able to live safely and comfortably in that province again.
The possibility of an ecological disaster will always be present. The presence of cyanide compounds to separate the gold from ore will always be a constant threat to the phreatic water, not only in Didipio but for the whole area where rivers in the province connect.
Let’s just assume that the foreign company mining this site is responsible enough to prevent leeching and seepage but are we prepared enough to handle massive ecological disasters that may release these poisonous by-products to the open nature?
Let’s not forget that the Philippines is almost like China and Myanmar. We have our own share of earthquakes and killer floods.
Our politicians should think again before they decide to continue the project.
Nice post.
To me, it is just sickening how this Arroyo regime used the resources of government to allow--and defend--the Australian mining company that is doing illegal activities in Didipio.
This is a clear part of a grand plan for the Arroyo family to amass all the wealth they could not not even exhaust in several lifetimes: then Sen. Gloria Arroyo sponsored the much-criticized Philippine Mining Act of 1995. When she became "President", she signed Executive Order 270 which "revitalizes" the mining industry in the country.
She has appointed her lapdogs to the DENR's top post: Mike Defensor, Angelo Reyes and now, Lito Atienza. The Arroyos in the House, namely Mikey and Iggy "Jose Pidal", control the House committees on Energy and Natural Resources, respectively.
No wonder many people call her (like that poor fellow, the PMA valedictorian) Gloria Macapal Arroyo.
hi,
we are happy to read and hear people like you getting interested and involved in the environment issues here in the philippines,
our organisation is involved in this mining issue in NV. please visit our site - www.lrcluzon.multiply.com; www.lrcksk.org
i'm ronald
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