I. Exordium ( opening )“ Where you stand on this issue is determined by the inquiry: make you love this state? If you do. you’ll battle for it. . ” “ Mining is a search-and-destroy mission. ”
II. Salute: Member of the Board of Judges. my worthy oppositions. ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon.
III. Definition: Harmonizing to Meriam-Webster’s Dictionary. excavation is the digging of stuffs from the Earth’s crust. including those of organic beginning. such as coal and crude oil. Modern excavation is dearly-won and complicated. First. a mineral vena that can probably bring forth sufficiency of the coveted substance to warrant the cost of extraction must be located. Then the size of the vena or sedimentation is determined. and mining applied scientists decide the best manner to mine it. Most of the world’s annually mineral production is extracted by surface excavation. which includes open-pit excavation. strip excavation. and quarrying. For ore organic structures that lie a considerable distance below the surface. belowground excavation must be considered. In both techniques. unearthing and pull outing mineral substances involve dearly-won combinations of boring. blasting. hoisting. and haling. every bit good as steps for wellness and safety and decrease of environmental impact.
IV. Team SplitI shall discourse the Necessity facet while my squad mate. 2nd talker shall discourse the Beneficiality and the 3rd talker shall discourse the Practicability facet of the proposition.
V. Argument I
VI. Argument II
VII. Argument III
VIII. Closing/Conclusion
Haribon Foundation features adult females in the book “ STORIES from the MINES of battle. sistership and solidarity” released by Alyansa Tigil Mina ( ATM ) ; these are the adult females “ who continue to run for human self-respect. biodiversity preservation and sustainable communities” .
Natividad Nagutom or Naty. 61. is a occupant of Barangay Magapua. Mogpog in Marinduque. She is married to Julio Nagutom and a female parent of eight kids. She is a member of Marinduque Council for Environmental Concern ( MACEC ) for over 13 old ages. Now. she is the president of MACEC chapter in their barangay. Her engagement in MACEC had developed her to go a tough advocator of human rights and a safe and peaceable community. Like most members of MACEC. Naty has her ain portion of battles with the impact of excavation in their town. In 1993. the Maguila-guila Siltation Dam of Marcopper Mining Corporation collapsed and caused a flash inundation that gushed to the Mogpog River. The heavy rush of H2O and mine spill had shaken their house and about drowned them to decease. Naty and her hubby tied themselves with their eight kids. so that they can back up each other and avoid drowning.
That traumatic experience drove her to be involved in the run against excavation in their community and the full state. She actively participated in many seminars. preparations. and mobilisations in and out of the state which are normally sponsored by MACEC. With support from MACEC and other organisation. she took the lead in registering the instance against Marcopper Mining Corporation.
In 2005. she attended a Mining Conference in Baguio City organized by Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center. In the conference. she shared her experience during the 1993 flash inundation and her parts to the anti-mining actions. The participants felt her battle ; about all of them cried after recognizing that they were non entirely in the battle for justness. That experience made her an even stronger advocator.
Her unity was challenged by the efforts of mining company to purchase off her base and discontinue. But she ne’er thought of retreating the instance even though sometimes it frustrates her to believe that it is traveling slow.
But they cherish triumphs and mileposts in their campaign—the 50-year excavation moratorium in the state is one. To Naty. excavation is a destructive industry that causes people to populate in fright and exposes them to so much menace. For her. excavation has no topographic point now in Mogpog and in the full state of Marinduque. THE IMPACTS OF MINING IN THE PHILIPPINES
The job of the issue is the negative environmental and wellness impact of excavation. Statement of Catholic Bishops of the Philippines. 1998. Mining airss enormous hazards to life and limb. non merely to mineworkers but to the community every bit good. Countless accidents have happened and have affected 1000s of mineworkers in our state. straight or indirectly caused by risky excavation operations. There is a really high societal cost of excavation and the impact on the society is unmeasurable.
Occupational wellness jeopardies posed by mining to workers are exposure to intense heat. hapless airing. quiver. dust. exhausts. insistent stress hurt ( RSI ) . intense noise. manual handling ( e. g. raising ) of heavy machinery and biological and chemical jeopardies.
Due to the nature of belowground excavation. mineworkers are invariably exposed to intense heat while hydration is really limited. Miners normally have fluid and salt lack due to changeless perspiration. increased emphasis on the bosom. heat shot. opacity of the lens and decreased birthrate due to high heat. Poor airing robs the organic structure of needful O doing the encephalon to malfunction and leads to many deceases particularly in belowground operations.
Vibration on the other manus can do lasting harm to castanetss and quiver syndrome or “ dead finger” syndrome can take to necrose in the custodies and fingers. It can besides do digestive jobs due to changeless shaking of the internal variety meats. bosom jobs and break of the nervous system.
Mines exposes workers to different types of airborne particulates. doing them vulnerable to systemic toxic effects due to the soaking up of lead. manganese. Cd. Zn and other toxic stuff.
Exhausts are emitted by chemicals being used or by the machines being employed during mining operations. Coupled with hapless airing. this can trip accidents and do decease to workers. RSI being a soft-tissue upset is caused by overloading of peculiar musculus group from insistent usage or care of forced positions. Miners who suffer from RSI complain of failing of the affected musculuss. weightiness. “ pins and needles” esthesis and numbness.
Noise or irritating and risky sound can do hearing impairment and/or disrupt organic structure maps like blood circulation and endocrine instability. Deafness and hearing loss can go irreversible and other non-auditory effects are increased blood force per unit area and peptic ulcer due to increased GI motility.
Manual lifting of stuffs causes back problems taking to acute hurting. A big per centum of the workers suffer earlier or subsequently from this upset caused by their type of work. Because most mines in the Philippines extract gold. the usage of Na nitrile for leaching gold from finely land ore is frequent. The usage of liquid quicksilver to make gold-amalgam is besides wide-spread. Nitrile blocks the transportation of O from the blood to the organic structure tissues. Signs of acute poisoning include rapid external respiration. gasping. shudders. paroxysms and decease. Effectss of bomber deadly poisoning include concern. giddiness and thyroid expansion.
A Fact-finding Team composed of human rights and environmental experts from the United Kingdom which looked into the impact of excavation on the environment and peoples’ supports in the Philippines highlighted the happening of mining-related human rights abuses impacting local communities particularly autochthonal people ; extrajudicial violent deaths of individuals protesting against excavation ; corruptness in the excavation sector ; political force per unit area on the judiciary resulting in pro-mining determinations ; and environmental impacts.
The squad observed that the record of mining companies with respect to environmental protection. catastrophes and post-mining clean-up in the Philippines is widely acknowledged. even with the authorities. to be really hapless. As of 2003. there had been at least 16 serious chasing dike failures in the predating 20 old ages and about 800 abandoned mine sites have non been cleaned up. Clean-up costs are estimated in one million millions of dollars and harm will ne’er be to the full reversed.
It warned that H2O taint from mining airss one of the top three ecological security menaces in the universe. Many excavation applications in the Philippines are in H2O catchment countries near to the sea. and pose major menace to valuable marine resources. The terrible pollution of the Taft river system in Eastern Samar as a consequence of the excavation activities in Bagacay is a graphic illustration.
The study besides emphasized the really high geo-hazard hazards in the Philippines. In the Philippines. over half of the active excavation grants and two-thirds of explorative grants are located in countries of high seismic hazard where temblors are likely.
The Philippines is considered as the hottest hot spot in the universe in footings of menaces to its mega diverse biodiversity. Therefore there is an pressing demand to decently pull off its natural resources. It is estimated that 37 % of Philippine woods may be exposed to new excavation.
We have to be concern with the past experiences where human rights were disregarded in chase of the excavation operations. Likewise. our state is confronting with the diminishing and restricted natural resources. Our authorities may be in demand of gross. but giving the environmental direction. such as the agricultural land. H2O and woods. which are more indispensable. sustainable and economically operable.
The geographic expedition. development and use of mineral resources contend with the present twenty-four hours worlds of planetary heating. pollution. and nutrient deficits. One thing to see is the dangers posed by temblors. typhoons and volcanic eruptions. Protecting the environment is avoiding hazard and catastrophe ; hence the Acts of the Apostless of provincial board members are commendable.
The measure in Congress censoring all excavation geographic expedition and operation in Carigara Bay shows how Leyte 2nd territory Representative ( Rep. ) Sergio Apostol. principal authored. with Leyte 3rd territory Rep. Andres Salvacion and Biliran lone territory Rep. Rogelio Espina. co-authors. earnestly are concerned with the lives of the people and to protect the environment.
Sangguniang Panlalawigan action on excavation ventures in the state show they are non kiping on their occupations. Their concern on the consequence of excavation is a great service to humanity. particularly for Leytenos. A negative impact on the environment. non merely during its operations. but will go on even after long old ages of its surcease. Therefore. the critical action of the authorities either from the national or local governments enforcing ordinances to chair the negative consequence of excavation in a vicinity is necessary.
Our state has highly hapless excavation repute compared from other parts of the universe. Abandoned mines and even those still runing have affected the supports of 1000s of lesser fortunate Filipinos. Mining has a negative consequence for Filipino beginning of support.
In the instance of the husbandmans in MacArthur wherein Leyte 2nd territory Board Member Anlie Apostol is alarmed. because the Nicua Mining Corporation’s mining award may be against the spirit of the Agrarian Reform Law. Some 40 hectares were bought with option for the husbandmans to purchase back the land may hold violated the proviso that the farmer-beneficiary could non sell the land within 25 old ages.
Unless the land is no longer productive and approved by the Department of Agrarian Reform in conformity with the regulations in transition or freedom. At present we have some 800 abandoned mines in the state that have caused huge environmental harm. Some of which have records of human rights maltreatments. Abandoned mines have left the affected occupants to undergo economic troubles. How long will Nicua operates the excavation?
It is worthy to observe that some excavation companies have failed to follow with national jurisprudence and international criterions. harmonizing to Clare Short. a member of parliament from Birmingham. United Kingdom. As the base taken by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines ( CBCP ) when they publically opposed the 1995 Mining Act.
Leyte 1st territory Board Member Roque Tiu is right in his contention that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau ( MGB ) . and the Provincial Government of Leyte are non in contradiction over the Mining Act and the Local Government Code ( LGC ) . It is true that licenses for excavation operation is issued by the national authorities. nevertheless. the LGC provides:
“ Section 27. – Anterior Consultations Required. – No undertaking or plan shall be implemented by authorities governments unless the audiences mentioned in Section 2 ( degree Celsius ) and 26 hereof are complied with. and anterior blessing of the Sanggunian concerned is obtained. Provided that residents in countries where such undertakings are to be implemented shall non be evicted unless appropriate resettlement sites have been provided. in conformity with the commissariats of the Constitution.
“ Section 26. Duty of National Government Agencies in the Maintenance of /Ecological Balance. – It shall be the responsibility of every national bureau or government-owned or controlled corporation authorizing of involved in the planning and execution of any undertaking or plan that may do pollution. climatic alteration. depletion of non-renewable resources. loss of cropland. rangeland. or forest screen. and extinction of animate being or works species. to confer with with the local authorities units. nongovernmental organisations. and other sectors concerned and explicate the ends and aims of the undertaking or plan. its impact upon the people and the community in footings of environmental or ecological balance. and the steps that will be undertaken to forestall or minimise the inauspicious effects thereof. ”
In one of the opinions of the Supreme Court. it states: “ Congress introduced Sections 26 and 27 in the Local Government Code to stress the legislative concern “ for the care of a sound ecology and clean environment. ” These commissariats require every national authorities bureau or government-owned and controlled corporation to keep anterior audiences with the local authorities unit concerned and to procure the anterior blessing of its sanggunian before implementing “ any undertaking or plan that may do pollution. climatic alteration. depletion of non-renewable resources. loss of cropland. rangeland. or forest screen and extinction of animate being or works species. ”