Australia mining aid for PH questioned

The Australian government has launched a $127 million aid package for world's poor but mineral-rich nations, including the Philippines.

But Filipino and Australian organizations, during a forum at the University of Melbourne, has criticized Prime Minister Julia Gillard for launching the "Mining for Development Initiative" that aims to help more than 30 developing countries, and address various issues related to mining, including environmental impacts and governance.

Mining Action Philippines – Australia claimed the "smart aid" initiative will not solve other important issues related to mining, such as extra-judicial killings, human rights violations, indigenous land grabbing, environmental destruction and corruption.

MAP-Oz is a mining watchdog composed of various Filipino and Australian citizens and organizations including Friends of the Earth and Haribon Foundation.

"While the main aid for the Philippines is for scholarships and trainings either in the country or in Australia, we cannot deny the fact that there are a lot of conflicting mining issues and policies which should be addressed by both the government and the mining industry. The Gillard government should think twice in granting aids to a country where issues are not solved and wrongly addressed," MAP-Oz declared in a statement.

At least 11 Australian mining companies are currently in the Philippines with licenses to operate and explore including OceanaGold, Xstrata, Indophil, Central Gold Asia, Pelican Resources and Mindoro Resources Limited.

Earlier this year, OceanaGold was cited by the Philippines' Commission of Human Rights for serious violations of human rights against the people, including illegal and violent demolition of 187 houses.

The Australian company operates a nickel-gold mining site in Didipio, Nueva Viscaya.

Jubilee Australia executive director Adele Webb claimed that the 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' Framework of UN Special Representative Professor John Ruggie, endorsed by Australia as member of the UN Human Rights Council this year, makes it clear that states have a duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties including business enterprises, through appropriate policies, regulation, and adjudication.

"Yet the Australia government gives companies no authoritative guidance on how to avoid negative affects in their operations overseas, and there exists no accountability and enforcement mechanisms when such breaches occur and while there is much patting on the back about joint industry and Australian aid funded scholarship programs in countries like the Philippines, there is an eerie silence about what remote indigenous communities are facing on the ground," lamented Webb.

Meanwhile, MAP-Oz convener Alyansa Tigil Mina, a Philippine-based alliance with more than 90 mining affected community organizations and support groups, exposed that a large mine owned by Australia-based Xstrata Copper and Indophil Resources NL will soon be opened in Mindanao.

The region has the largest underdeveloped copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia.

But in South Cotabato, the local government had banned open pit mining because of the great environmental destruction it will cause.

According to technical studies of the mining company, the mines will cause extensive disturbance of almost 10,000 hectares of forest lands, which serve as watersheds of South Cotabato and other three Mindanao provinces and will cut down 4,000 hectares of forests including old growth forests, which are initial components of the protected areas system. It will also displace more than 2,600 people belonging to the B'laan indigenous community.

The mining company is presently pressuring the national government and the local officials to lift the ban.

"With the recent approval of deploying mining militia; and emerging issues on human rights violations, environmental destruction, inequitable tax share and questionable mining licenses; is the Philippines ready for Australia's 'smart aid'? Are the Australian people ready to share and participate in the ongoing history of Philippine mining?" Alyansa Tigil Mina declared in a statement.

The Philippine Catholic hierarchy and other Christian churches together with civil society movements have been calling for the repeal of Executive Order 270-A, which liberalizes the mining industry, and the scrapping of Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

In its place, they urged for the swift passage of alternative minerals management bills currently pending in the House of Representatives, which will lead to a human rights-centered law, establishment of mining no go zones and respect of indigenous peoples' rights. -CBCP — ARA