Miners Struggle

Articles From The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Chief Justice Davide's help sought in tribes' war against 1995 Mining Act

DAVAO CITY
The militant Pasaka Regional Lumad Conference Wednesday challenged newly appointed Chief Justice Hilario Davide to uphold the indigenous people's petition to strike down Republic Act 7942 or the 1995 Mining Act. Amelito Elio, Pasaka secretary general, said the issue will serve as an ''ultimate test'' for the Supreme Court under Davide's leadership as it would determine if it is ''pro-people'' or ''pro-elite.'' Elio said the Mining Act is a ''matter of life and death situation'' for some 12 million indigenous peoples nationwide because it will not only destroy their culture and way of life but the ''core of our existence.'' Elio said the passage of the Mining Act has led to the displacement of thousands of tribal folk from their ancestral domains and caused tension and violence.

Elio said while Davide's appointment has been lauded by ranking officials in the judiciary and politicians, the ''people especially the indigenous peoples would like to see these accolades manifested into rulings that uphold the interest of the poor and the deprived.'' The petition against the Mining Act was filed by at least 45 leaders of indigenous peoples, individuals, nongovernment organizations, people's organizations and children on Feb. 7 last year. The petitioners are questioning the constitutionality of the Mining Act as it allows foreign companies to acquire 100 percent ownership stake in mineral exploration sites in the country. Records from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau showed that there are at least 116 FTAA applications, covering over a million hectares and 1,448 applications for Mineral Production Sharing Agreements. All these applications traverse ancestral lands claimed by indigenous peoples, Elio said. But small scale mining got the support of Gov. Rogelio Llanos who earlier expressed vehement objections to the operation of big mining firms.

Llanos earlier vowed to stop any mining activities in the province, but changed his mind upon learning that under the Indigenous People's Rights Act, lumads have the right to explore the resources of their ancestral domain. ''I don't want mining because it poses danger to our environment, but my hands are tied by this law,'' he said. He said under Ipra there are legal sanctions against local government officials who block the effort of tribal communities in developing their economic conditions through the use of the resources in their ancestral domain. ''You can get jailed or fined or even disqualified from public service for life,'' he added. Instead, Llanos said he will form a team to study how mining activities in Barangay Dongan Pikong in Matanao would be made safe. Most of the small-scale miners in Matanao are B'laans led by the Latil Indigenous Cultural Community Association. Licca spokesperson Zhinal Kinoc earlier said they may be forced to sue Llanos for opposing mining activities. ''This (mining) is to provide livelihood for the lumad communities living in the area and Ipra said we have the right to do this,'' Kinoc said. Llanos also suggested that activities be regulated through the issuance of permits to miners. Rod Watt, site manager of the Australian firm Western Mining Corp., said if Llanos would allow the operation of small-scale miners, he has no reason to oppose the firm's planned operations. ''WMC is more credible than the small-scale miners as far as technology is concerned,'' Watt said. Jowel F. Canuday and Allan A. Nawal, PDI Mindanao Bureau Coastal villagers battle giant sand mining firm By Jani Arnaiz December 3, 1998 Sogod, Southern Leyte ''MINING shall be pro-people and pro-environment in sustaining wealth creation and improved quality of life.'' So says a footnote in a stationery used by Pedro de Leon, regional director for Eastern Visayas of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. But environmentalists and opponents of quarrying operations at the Subang Daku River in Sogod, Southern Leyte, by a Cebu-based multimillion-peso firm say the DENR, which is tasked to protect the environment, did the opposite of what it espoused. On MGB rests the power to issue mining permits, including Sand and Gravel extractions. Armed with that power, environmentalists say the DENR has turned blind to environmental problem best exemplified in the controversial SAG extractions of Shemberg Marketing Corp. at Subang Daku. They claim that instead of closing down its operation due to violations of its environmental compliance certificate, the MGB has renewed Shemberg's permit for another five years, beginning June 5, 1998, to extract an additional 360,000 cubic meters of sand and gravel from its 19-hectare quarry area. The first permit, issued by then Gov. Oscar K. Tan, was also for five years, from July 14, 1993 to July 13, 1998, for a volume of 380,000 cu.m.

and for the same area. De Leon actually issued Shemberg a new permit in March, but it was recalled a month later following a complaint of Tan himself, who protested that the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board was bypassed in the issuance of the renewal permit. Tan also noted that Shemberg violated the requirement for a mining firm to apply for renewal within 60 days before the existing permit expires. In June, however, De Leon issued a new permit to Shemberg since the application was already within the 60-day period. Background Crossing Subang Daku River had been the cause of many hardships not only to residents living nearby but also to travelers going to and from Sogod to Tacloban City and from Sogod to the southern tip of the province and the Pina-on Island. All these happened before a concrete road was built along its west bank, linking to the Maharlika Highway. The road may have eased the woes of travellers but not those of the eight barangays which have become isolated economically. Even then, the river's proximity to the town proper sowed fear to many, especially during monsoon and heavy rains. River control in strategic areas had not stopped the large volume of waters flowing to the town. A study conducted by Ramon Villarias Jr., a Sogodnon engineer and executive of the Cebu-based Metaphil Inc.-Aboitiz construction group, said Subang Daku is a high-slope river which does not have well-defined banks. It can be as wide as 200 meters during dry season. The rechanneling of Subang Daku is the only way to control the river flow, proposed the provincial government. Funding the project was another matter for a cash-strapped capitol. This was when Shemberg Marketing came in. Scarcity of construction materials in booming Cebu was aggravated by the closure of quarrying at the Mananga River in Talisay, Cebu. This has led construction giants like Shemberg to look for alternative sources. The abundance of materials in Subang Daku may have been offered to Cebu.

Shemberg Marketing, owned by Ernesto U. Dakay, may have known the predicament of the province as it offered to rechannel the river and pay a considerable amount of taxes in exchange for extracting sand and gravel, and operating a stone crushing plant along Subang Daku. No opposition was heard until three years later when a study released by the Silliman University's Marine Laboratory showed the massive extraction's impact on the environment. The 1996 study showed the bay where the river's water empties has turned turbid and silted due to high sediment output resulting from the SAG extraction. The study added that sand and gravel mining exacerbated the limited productive ecosystem of the bay and the siltation around the area posed a big problem to marine life. At that time, the silt was measured at about four inches thick. Thus, the livelihood of fishing residents in nine towns which encompass the bay area were also threatened. The Silliman study dovetailed hat of Villarias who opposed the quarrying because it causes artificial disruption on the natural slope of the river.

Villarias has warned that the removal of river bed materials will alter the slope, triggering an upstream erosion. The riverbed is highly susceptible to erosion as it is composed of a mixture of course gravel interspersed with sand and clay. All these facts point to a disastrous combination that is just waiting to happen, Villarias warned. The voices of environment advocates like Willie Justimbaste, a Sogodnon who drumbeat the opposition cause in his column in a Cebu daily, were not listened to. It was only in the waning years of the Ramos administration that they have been vindicated. The price Eulogio Butad, 72, who has lived all his life in Barangay San Lorenzo near the mouth of the river, could now only reminisce the time when a fisher just had to throw a hook and line to catch all the fish he wanted along the bay. Now, he said, ''you would be lucky to catch a kilo in a day.'' Butad said the catch dwindled when the river and sea were disturbed by Shemberg's crushing plant. However, the complaint were ignored. Shemberg's operation meant a quarterly tax income of P150,000 for the province. Tan then reasoned: ''There will always be an opposition, but that's the price we have to pay for the development.'' Gonzalo Yong, then the town mayor, added: ''It is but natural that when we channel a river or construct a canal, there is expected silting. This is not solely caused by the operation of Shemberg but both by legal and illegal logging as explained by the Silliman study. Siltation is the price we have to pay in the extraction of SAG.'' But the opposition continued to mount, pointing to Shemberg's alleged glaring violations of its ECC, such as noncompliance with the rechanneling of the river. Neone Asilom, Shemberg's operation manager, admitted that rechanneling was only incidental in their work. He had said that when they extracted in a certain area, that was the only time they make way for the river flow. Critics noted another violation: the crushing equipment is within the 200-meter distance prohibited in their permit. The plant is located at La Purisima Concepcion when it should have been in Sitio Suba as stipulated in their permit, they noted. Planting of trees alongside riverbanks was not complied with and the number of volume extracted were not properly reported. Even the DENR has reported it has no record at all of the amount of sand and gravel so far extracted from the river. Ironically, before the DENR could act on the cries of the opposition, a new five-year permit was granted. Midnight deal ''A midnight deal,'' said the new capitol leadership. Exactly a week after Gov. Rosette Lerias took the reigns from Tan on July 8, she wrote to Environment Secretary Antonio Cerilles asking him to immediately cancel Shemberg's new permit. Shemberg's sister company, Rockland, had by then applied for another 19 hectares upstream, but it was thrown out by capitol.

Lerias said Shemberg Marketing violated the terms and condition of the original ECC as certified by the municipal government of Sogod and has greatly devastated the environment based on findings of the Silliman study.

Under Lerias, the voices of objection from the coastal communities in the towns of Sogod, Libagon, Bontoc and Tomas Oppus were finally heard. Like Tan, she also protested the bypassing of the PMRB, depriving the board of its right to evaluate applications for renewal of the SAG permit. Because of Lerias' letter to Cerilles, public hearings were called in the town by the DENR. It was in one of these hearings where Andres Necessito, the provincial environment officer, said public hearings were not anymore conducted on the renewal of Shemberg's application as they were using the old law where the governor still held the authority to issue permit. Sometime last week, Lerias went on air over the two radio stations in Sogod, announcing that she had talked with Secretary Cerilles and was told Shemberg's operation will soon be ordered closed. As to when, she was told that she has to wait until a cease-and-desist order is approved by the DENR's legal officer.

Marinduque villagers urge river's cleanup December 3, 1998 BOAC, Marinduque—Residents of the 37 barangays in Mogpog town are up in arms against Marcopper Mining Corp. Mayor Jonathan Garcia said Marcopper had been ignoring their plea to totally clean the contaminated and highly toxic Mogpog River. ''The river used to be the town's source of drinking water before. But now, because of the waste materials still deposited in the river, even animals can no longer benefit from it,'' Garcia said. Marcopper caused massive pollution in the province after it accidentally spilled 400,000 cubic meters of mine waste materials in March 1996, displacing at least 800 mine workers and causing P25 million damage to marine life. Barangay Sumangga chair Pio Letilla is demanding from Marcopper an allocation of P600,000 for each of the affected barangays as funds to clean up the waste. He said his barangay is one of the most affected barangays in their municipality. Aside from Sumangga, other barangays that were affected by pollution in the river are Puting Buhangin, Bokbok, Butan Sapa, Banto, Malusak, Magapuwa, Mauyan, Mababad, Kandson, Poblacion, Nangka I, Nangka II, Hanagdong and Maligaya. In Boac, there are still waste materials deposited in the mouth of Boac River and it poses a threat to some 50,000 villagers, according to Gov.

Carmencita Reyes. Reyes said before Marcopper starts reworking the mine, it should first dispose of the mine tailings and rehabilitate the river. This prompted Placer Dome Technical Services, contractor of Marcopper, to speed up rehabilitation work. But Orlando Cruz, PDTS vice president for corporate affairs, said Boac River has been rehabilitated. ''The work done by Placer Dome Technical Services here has returned the Boac River to its original riverbed levels and possible flooding has been reduced,'' he said.

In a letter to PDTS president John Loney, Environment Secretary Antonio Cerilles approved the implementation of a flood control plan which would require the extraction of at least 25,000 cubic meters of tailings from the river. In areas that cannot be reached by mechanized equipment, sandbagging is planned to prevent floods employing workers from the area with funds from the PDTS. Arnel G. Avila, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau P112M lost to failed reforestation By Froilan Gallardo December 3, 1998 PDI Visayas Bureau CEBU CITY—A multimillion-peso reforestation program that was supposed to reforest denuded forests in Central Visayas was considered to be a major failure, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said yesterday. Jose Lechonsito, DENR Central Visayas technical director, said more than P111.7 million of taxpayers' money was lost after contractors failed to plant trees in more than 24,176 hectares in Negros Occidental, Bohol, Siquijor and Cebu. The money is part of the DENR Contract Reforestation Project, which was loaned by the Philippine government from the Asian Development Bank in 1989. The denuded lands were supposed to be planted with mahogany, gmelina and mangium trees by farmers and nongovernment organizations. According to DENR standards, contractors should have planted 80 percent of the assigned area and the trees planted should be a meter in height after three years. But forester Ambrosio Wenceslao said all the 1,313 reforestation contracts in Central Visayas failed to meet the standard. Of the number, 613 contracts came from Cebu, he said. Lechonsito said many of the reforestation projects failed because the contractors pocketed the money. Contractors were paid P18,000 per hectare to be planted with 1,017 trees. Many reforestation projects also suffered from long droughts, fire and other natural causes, he added. Aside from that, he said the rocky soil conditions in Cebu province made it difficult for the farmers and NGOs to succeed. Still, Lechonsito said the department is considering filing breach of contract and damage suits against the contractors. Environment Secretary Antonio Cerilles, in his visit here on Nov. 28, said they were filing charges against erring contractors before the Office of the Solicitor General for their failure to plant trees. "`Many failed totally to meet our standards,'' Lechonsito said. Among the contractors is the city government of Cebu, which was contracted by the DENR to replant 20 hectares for P346,300 in Barangay Sibugay. Wenceslao said the DENR has already given P217,487 to the Cebu City government but until now, not a single tree was planted in Barangay Sibugay. He said not one tree was planted in 6,599 hectares in the towns of Argao, Catmon, and Dalaguete since 1989 by farmers and NGOs. Lechonsito said the DENR legal office is now studying steps to recover the lost investments. In Cebu, Wenceslao said among those who received money from the DENR were NGOs like Community Resource Development Foundation Inc., which got a P5.2 million contract to reforest 277 hectares in the southern town of Alcoy.

Wenceslao said the DENR has already given P3.9 million to the foundation. Other NGOs who availed of DENR contracts were the Giwanon Farmers Association, which got P110,000 to replant 10 hectares in Barangay Giwanon, Argao. Calubian Farmers Association got P980,000 to reforest 50 hectares in Catmon town and P191,000 for Moregrass Inc. for the 10 hectares in Barangay Baklas, also in Catmon. The other groups were Evergreen Garden Inc., P550,000 to reforest 36 hectares in Catmon town; Cope Cebu, P1 million for 50 hectares in Barangay Panalipan, Catmon; alumni of Mindanao Agricultural College and Central Mindanao University, P950,000 for 50 hectares in Barangay Tabili, Catmon; and retired employees of Picop, P1.6 million for 90 hectares in Barangay Damulog, Sugod town.

IFMA PROJECT Doctor seeks to block Cerilles appointment By Carlito Pablo December 3, 1998 A PHYSICIAN yesterday asked the Commission on Appointments not to confirm Environment Secretary Antonio Cerilles on the alleged ground that he exerted pressure to have her 2,000-hectare reforestation project in Zamboanga del Sur cancelled. Dr. Filomena San Juan, an oncologist, said Cerilles and Undersecretary Ramon Paje of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources were responsible for the cancellation of her Integrated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma R-9-040), which was awarded to her in 1994. ''Obviously, after (Cerilles') designation as (environment) secretary, he has been using his office and vast powers to destroy his political enemies . . . myself included,'' San Juan said in a sworn statement which she disclosed in a forum at Ciudad Fernandina in Greenhills. In the May elections San Juan ran as Lakas-NUCD candidate for representative of the second district of Zamboanga del Sur, where Cerilles earlier served for three terms. She lost to Cerilles' wife Aurora. San Juan, who garnered 43,000 votes against Aurora's 152,000, filed a complaint alleging electoral fraud, but it was dismissed. Her Ifma project is located in Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur, which forms part of the first congressional district of the province. Cerilles was not available for comment, but Paje released a statement arguing that San Juan's Ifma had not been cancelled. Paje said Cerilles had ordered a review of all Ifmas, particularly those which had not yet been planted and were in conflict with the interests of indigenous communities. The DENR media office also released an official report on an evaluation made on San Juan's Ifma on Oct. 22-30. The report indicated that San Juan had failed to fulfill her responsibilities as Ifma holder as no annual operations plan had been submitted ''ever since the start up to the current year.'' The report said no perimeter survey had been undertaken, there was only one nursery in operation, and no new tree planting was conducted for this year. It said only 365.2 hectares had been planted with mango and other tree species from 1995 to 1997. The DENR also released a petition by Subanen tribesmen dated Sept. 22, 1998, who said San Juan's Ifma was granted without their ''free prior informed consent.'' The tribesmen had earlier staged a rally to press for the cancellation of the Ifma which, they said, encroached on their ancestral domain. In his statement, Paje said only Ifma holders ''who are capable and willing to plant should be allowed to continue.'' But in her complaint, San Juan said the signatories in the petition ''were written by one person, judging from the strokes of handwriting.'' San Juan said further verification showed that the petitioners were not living in the area nor included in the list of recorded occupants in the Ifma project before it was awarded to her. She claimed that the rally staged by the petitioners was ''a mere sham.'' San Juan said she and her doctor-husband had invested their hard-earned money in the project ''which might not even give us a return of investment.'' She and her husband conduct their practice in Manila.

Australia urged to open up market to RP exports December 2, 1998 BRISBANE—The Philippines is aggressively pursuing attempts to persuade the Australian government to provide wider and faster access for Philippine exports to correct a growing trade deficit, officials from Manila said during the weekend. The tone for future bilateral trade ties was set here late last week by Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. in a series of meetings with Australian officials led by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Siazon led a group of senior government and business leaders who met with Australian counterparts during the Second Philippine-Australia Dialogue jointly organized by the Griffith University and the Manila-based University of Asia and the Pacific. Specifically, Philippine officials asked Downer for a firm commitment to speed up entry of major agricultural products, such as mangoes, pineapples and bananas, into the Australian market. ''What we are asking is trade facilitation, not liberalization,'' Siazon told Downer. Siazon's stand drew support from former Senate President Edgardo Angara, chair of the Philippine National Bank. Angara, who is slated to take over the agriculture portfolio next year, said there was need for Australia to give easier access to Philippine products to make bilateral ties more significant. Worried by the depressed state of the sugar industry at home, Angara has looked up to Queensland as a possible source of sugar technology. Queensland is widely regarded as Australia's sugar bowl. Downer and the Australian envoy in Manila, Miles Kupa, assured the Philippine delegation that Australia has been gradually relaxing restrictions on imports of agricultural products. In the case of mango, for instance, Downer said the product has met the requirements of Australia's tough quarantine policies. Initially, however, mango imports from the Philippines will be limited to produce from the island of Guimaras in western Visayas. In the case of pineapples and bananas, Philippine delegation members warned that the issue may take some time to settle. Luis Lorenzo Jr., chair and chief executive of Lapanday Holdings Corp., noted that despite the worldwide acceptance of his products, his group has made little headway in Australia. Lorenzo's group produces Del Monte products in the Philippines. The same sentiment was echoed by Paul Dominguez, former presidential assistant for Mindanao, whose family is heavily involved in agriculture. The Australian government will need political will to relax quarantine rules, he said. According to Dominguez, access to the Australian market can easily generate 50,000 new jobs in Mindanao. The Philippine delegation included BOI Governor Tomas Aquino, Ambassador Delia Domingo-Albert, PDIC president Ernest Leung, DENR Undersecretary Teodoro Pison, Benedicto Steel Chairman Ceferino Benedicto, SGV partner Rene Fuentes, SMC EVP Delfin Gonzalez Jr., Philippine-Australia Business Council Chairman Raul Hernandez, TIM Group Chairman Arthur Leong, Philippine Sugar Millers Association Deputy Director Jose Manuel Lopa, Philippine-Australia Business Council Trustee Violy Searby, Carmelray Industrial Corp. managing director Ma. Elena Yulo-Lorenzo, JWT Chairman Emeritus J.J. Calero, PDI EVP Samuel Señoren, Asian Development Bank Institute Dean Jesus Estanislao, UP Open University Chancellor Ma. Cristina Padolina and UA&P Economics Dean Bernardo Villegas. (To be continued) DENR pushes 'timber corridors' plan December 2, 1998 DAVAO CITY—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will establish early next year a total of 1.5 million hectares of ''timber corridors'' spread in at least nine regions in the country. Secretary Antonio Cerilles said the scheme, which is widely opposed by environmental and indigenous peoples' groups, is aimed at attracting investors for forest production activities and ''protect'' the country's remaining virgin forests. Targeted for timber corridors are Southern Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Western Mindanao, Caraga, Central Mindanao, Samar, Cagayan Valley, Bicol and the Cordillera Administrative Region. The department's Forest Management Bureau and the Environmental Research Management Bureau are already validating some areas in these regions for tree plantation suitability. But Cerilles said Caraga is ''really suited for forest production.'' He said he already submitted the plan to President Estrada last week to facilitate its inclusion in the integrated national economic plan being drafted by the National Economic and Development Authority. But Cerilles said the timber corridor program can be implemented by the DENR even without the President's approval. ''We want to highlight the timber corridors so that these can be given priority,'' he said in a press conference at Insular Century Hotel Davao on Monday. Cerilles said the ''fast-track'' scheme should be started early next year. Environmental and indigenous people's rights groups have described the program as ''very scary.'' Judy Pasimio, coordinator of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center's campaigns team, said tree plantations are the very programs which caused the displacement of tribal communities. She said monocropping scheme adopted by tree plantations was also proven to be disastrous to the ecosystem. But Cerilles said the DENR's intention in establishing timber corridors ''is to protect the existing virgin forests.'' Unless a policy expanding forest resources is adopted, he said, the remaining old growth forest will soon be eaten up by rapid population growth. The scheme will not cover the country's remaining 800,000-hectare old growth forests which were declared as national parks, watersheds, historical parks, forest reserves, protected areas and wildlife parks, Cerilles said. In recognizing environmentalists' concerns on monocropping, he said the department will recommend only species, particularly endemic ones, that would ''even improve the environment.'' On fears over tribal groups' displacement, Cerilles said they see the New Zealand government's tree plantation program as a model. He said New Zealand was able to develop a program that establishes harmony between its Maori tribes and the tree plantations. But Pasimio said having that model was ''absurd'' because the forest conditions of the Philippines and New Zealand are different. Jowel F.

Canuday, PDI Mindanao Bureau RP, Aussie, Indon tribesmen link arms against mining firms November 14, 1998 By Carlito Pablo WHAT do the Subanens of Mindanao, the Dayaks and Amungmes of Indonesia and the aborigines of Australia have in common? They are all waging an uphill struggle to keep their ancestral lands and culture against the transnational mining giant, Rio Tinto. Today, representatives of the three tribes and other indigenous groups will meet at the Palm Plaza Hotel in Malate, Manila, for the International Conference Against Mining Transnational Corporations. The meeting aims to broaden opposition to alleged exploitation by mining companies. Earlier, a number of foreign delegates have gone on a fact-finding mission in mining areas in the Cordillera, General Santos City and Boac, Marinduque, site of the Marcopper mining disaster a few years ago. The Philippine Chamber of Mines have slammed the conference as a mere fund-raising activity by nongovernmental organizations. It has scheduled a pro-mining event this month. Responding to this jab, conference coordinator Lutgardo Jurcales said: ''Are they afraid that the truth about their ugly practices will be revealed.'' With the liberalization of the Philippine mining industry, through Republic Act 7942, Rio Tinto, a British-Australian firm, has applied for a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement, the equivalent of a mining permit, covering 600,000 hectares in the Zamboanga peninsula, home of the Subanens.

In a paper released by conference organizers, Rio Tinto is said to have been responsible for the displacement of aborigines in Cape York Peninsula in Australia to make way for a huge open-cast mine for bauxite. ''It has also desecrated and destroyed sacred sites,'' the paper said. Rio Tinto also played a part in the Indonesian government's ''transmigration program'' wherein families from Java were transported to a mining site by the company. A flyer jointly issued by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Rio Tinto said that the firm ''has relationships with indigenous peoples in many parts of the world.'' The flyer, which is being distributed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said that while there ''have been misunderstandings and setbacks'' these have been ''increasingly outweighed by positive actions, as each party has learned one another's ways.'' The DENR is hosting from Nov. 16 to 27 an exhibit on Rio Tinto whose resources amount to $13 billion as of 1997. Rep. Benjamin Cappleman has filed a bill seeking to repeal the mining law which allows companies not only generous tax breaks but also the privilege to repatriate 100 percent of their earnings. ''When transnational mining giants get primary right to exploit our mineral resources, evict people from their lands, destroy their sources of livelihood, their culture and the environment, you cannot call it development . . . it is neocolonization,'' Jurcales said.