Piece of mines

This particularly immaculate ecotourism zone, the Caramoan peninsula in Camarines Sur in Bicol, with its magnificent islands just off the coast, has one feature no other sites can claim: It boasts of unbridled destruction from small-scale mining and quarrying activities.

In the past 10 years or so, Caramoan rose to international fame when its pristine shoreline and other islands near it was featured in several editions of the hit reality TV show “Survivor,” airing in the United States and Israel.

As a tourism zone, declared as such under Republic Act 9445, Caramoan by definition must be off limits to mining, whether licensed by the government (large-scale mining) or by the local government unit (small-scale mining).

Not surprisingly, a group of local officials, headed by the progressive 23-year-old CamSur Gov. Miguel Villafuerte, and some environmentalists have been trying to close down what they termed as “illegal” mines in an official tourism zone.

It so happened that, about four months ago, four workers in a small-scale mining site in the area were killed. After years and years of inaction on the complaints about illegal mining there, the police sprang into action. And what did the police do? Well, they simply suspended the power of the provincial governor, i.e. Migz Villafuerte, as deputy of the National Police Commission (Napolcom), which gave him certain authority over the local police force. Mind you, this was the guy who was fighting the illegal mining activities, in the first place. Wow!

Last month, you see, the Napolcom basically just echoed the supposed “findings” of the local police in the province against the young Villafuerte, who nevertheless never found out from the Napolcom head office what those “findings” precisely were.

Take note that Villafuerte indeed was the one complaining—consistently and persistently—to the local police in CamSur of their “inaction” on the rampant illegal mining in Caramoan, which the environmental groups believed to be sanctioned, guided and even controlled by local political bigwigs.

And what did the police do? Well, apparently to show a bit of achievement, they casually seized some construction equipment that nevertheless belonged to the provincial government, used for public works and other government projects in the province.

Thus, word went around in LGU circles, not to mention some environmental groups, that the police and the illegal miners could be in connivance over the multimillion-peso minerals “business” in the tourism zone.

Giving the Napolcom a piece of his mind, Villafuerte noted in his appeal to the commission that the real issue in the area was the unabated illegal mining and quarrying in some pieces of real estate where mining was banned.

For one, the local police failed to carry out Villafuerte’s order to stop the illegal mining activities, by arresting for instance the operators and then filing charges against them.

Villafuerte told the Napolcom that the commission perhaps should zero in on the reported collusion between the local police and illegal-mining operators, instead of his power as Napolcom deputy.

But how did the mining activities in such an ecotourism zone, declared as such by an act of Congress at that, actually come about in the first place?

Well, it seemed that it was all the handiwork of this government corporation called PDA.

The Partido Development Authority was created some 20 years ago supposedly to fast-track the economic development of one specific district in CamSur, the one controlled by the Fuentebella family, headed by former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.

Yes, boss, he was the same former speaker who was implicated in the P10-billion pork scandal involving Janet Napoles, who already testified that he was one of her 100 or so accomplices in the pork scam in the past decade.

Indeed, in its 2007-2009 special audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) already questioned Fuentebella over the pork releases, amounting to almost P200 million, which he coursed through the Technology Resource Center (TRC) for supposed projects, although the funds ended up in another corporate vehicle called Partido District Development Cooperative Inc.

Anyway, PDA was also on the list of government corporations that the Aquino (Part II) administration earlier planned to abolish for being useless. The COA reported that PDA had been saddled with more than P1 billion in foreign loans, having incurred consistent losses over the years.

However, it seemed that PDA some years ago mysteriously obtained from the government (courtesy of the natural resources department and its mining licensing arm called the Mines and Geosciences Bureau) an agreement that, in effect, cleared the way for mining activities in the “Partido” district, even without the approval by the provincial government.

In other words, thanks to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), PDA became its own republic. It did not matter that Congress actually declared Caramoan, which was part of the “Partido” district, a national tourism zone.

The funny thing is, well, during his time in Congress, the politically influential Fuentebella was the lead proponent of RA 9445, the very same law declaring Caramoan as a tourism zone.

Moreover, Executive Order No. 79—issued by our dear leader Benigno Simeon, aka BS, as the bible of reforms in the mining industry—actually declared Caramoan as one of five specific areas that were closed to any mining application, big or small. The government even created the Caramoan National Park, with the DENR declaring it a “protected” area.

No wonder, the CamSur government has been begging DENR boss, our beloved Secretary Ramon Paje, to scrap the “agreement” between the PDA and the DENR, granting PDA the power over mining activities in Caramoan.

And what did Paje do? Well, basically, nothing!

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