The Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights), the research and information arm of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), a nationwide coalition of human rights defenders composed of more than fifty (50) organizations, throws its support to and calls for the immediate passage of House Bill 6342 or An Act to Regulate the Rational Exploration, Development and Utilization of Mineral Resources.
If passed into law, HB 6342 also known as the Alternative Mining Bill (AMB) would effectively repeal Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 which serves as the legal pillar of the government’s aggressive promotion of large-scale mining especially to foreign investors.
In a resolution, PAHRA already identified the Mining Act of 1995 as a policy instrument that contravenes human rights because it “has legitimized the exploitation and destruction of the country’s timber and mineral resources, and consequently the devastation of the peoples’ sources of livelihood and community life.”
The revitalization of the mining industry through the Mining Act of 1995 and Executive Order 270 has undermined the right to self-determination and the right of Filipinos and indigenous peoples groups to ‘freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources’ and to ‘freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.’
Furthermore, the incentives and preferential treatment accorded to multi-national companies, and the fast-tracking of mining applications have triggered a pattern of human rights violations ranging from irregular acts to secure community consent to criminal designs to silence oppositions to entry of mining operations in the areas.
Also, as a result of government’s prioritization of mining as a development strategy, cries for redress of indigenous peoples and local residents who were either displaced or whose health and livelihood were jeopardized by mining operations often fell on deaf ears creating an atmosphere of helplessness among the populace.
Hopefully, with the enactment of the Alternative Mining Bill, a mining policy that gives premium to the rights, dignity, and will of the people would be instituted. We believe that it would also put in place strict regulatory, monitoring, and accountability mechanisms that would ensure ecological protection, respect for human rights, and sustainable development in instances wherein mining would be allowed.
However, PhilRights would just like to point out that the wording of Section 130 (violations of human rights) might be technically flawed because under present human rights discourse, only State Parties to human rights treaties are legally liable for human rights violations. Later, this argument might be used by the mining companies to escape accountability for its abusive and deceptive acts.
So, we are proposing that Section 130 should read like this:
Violations of human rights. Extrajudicial killing, torture, involuntary disappearance, forcible displacement of populations, setting up of checkpoints and imposition of toll fees which impede the freedom of movement within mineral areas, deprivation of food and water sources, vote-buying and bribery for the purpose of securing consent or endorsement for the mining project, and other analogous acts are violations of human rights. Human rights abuses and complicity of contractors with acts violating human rights shall cause the immediate cancellation of mineral agreements. The offending contractor, as well as corporations having the same directors and/or officers as of the offending contractor shall be perpetually disqualified from being granted a mineral agreement. All equipment and assets of the corporation or person shall be confiscated in favor of the government.
In the same vein, Section 138, letter b. should also read like this:
Grounds for the cancellation of permits:
... b. Human rights abuses perpetrated by the contractor or any agent of the contractor and complicity with acts violating human rights;
But even with this comment, PAHRA fully endorses HB 6342 and sees the compelling need for its enactment into law to prevent the further degradation of the human rights situation in areas affected by large-scale mining in the Philippines.
September 2009
Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights)
An institution of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)
