Back in 2002, as my family and I were driving back to the capital city from Sagada, the roads, which were still very much undeveloped back then, was suddenly blocked by piles of mountain rocks. Less than one lane of the space was available for the van to pass, and when I looked out the window, I saw workers who looked like they were digging out rocks from inside a mountain. Amused by what I saw, I grabbed my camera, and just when I was about to snap a photograph of what seemed to me like a pile of destruction, one of the workers knocked on my window, screaming, “No picture! No picture!”
Without any knowledge of what was going on, except for the fact that it looked like they were destroying the mountainside, my family figured it was an illegal mining site.
That nanosecond of an experience in Sagada, witnessing something extremely-irresponsible and illegal for the environment, had remained vivid in my mind, and has continued to haunt me years after that.
And because of that, I generally assumed and concluded that mining is just bad, and that it should be stopped at all costs. If anyone had asked me to sign an anti-mining petition that time, I probably would have done so without any hesitation.
Last February, my teacher took her Advertising, Public Relations, and Environmental Journalism classes on an exposure trip to Manila, and one of the offices we visited was Nickel Asia Corp. in posh Bonifacio Global City.
There, we met JB Baylon, senior vice-president for Corporate Communications, who talked to us about “responsible mining”.
When I heard the term, I immediately asked myself, “Is there such a thing?” Sounded like an oxymoron.
JB went on to explain how mining is necessary for society, which instantly made me curious to see whether “responsible” mining corporations like Nickel Asia really walked the talk.
Surprisingly, Mr. Manuel Zamora Jr., president of Nickel Asia, offered my classmates and me the opportunity to visit their mining site in Bataraza at the southern part of Palawan, one of the largest in the country.
After visiting the Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. in Palawan last weekend, I realized that mining is not as bad as it is projected to be.
I had assumed, wrongly so, that mining is a totally cruel and bad thing because it is destructive to nature, and that it does more harm than good.
“But imagine a world without mining,” JB urged us: “We would not have the things essential and valuable to us. Our world would not have progressed without mining because the natural world we were born in is limited, and mining is one solution to provide and sustain a population that keeps growing.”
The problem, though, is that not all mining corporations are responsible. Neither are politicians, employees, journalists, parents, teachers, students, and children. “Would you simply generalize that these people are also bad just because some are?,” he asked.
Anti-mining campaigns continue to be waged, and yet, no one really realizes what responsible mining can do for society.
Visiting the mining site in Rio Tuba made me realize that responsible corporations such as the Rio Tuba Nickle Mining try their best to not only give back to Mother Earth who provides for them the minerals, but also to give back to the community, the source of natural wealth.
Afterall, all mining companies are mandated by law to give back about 1.5 percent of their income to the community where they operate.
At Rio Tuba Nickel Mining, that law is implemented to the letter.
The mining company has rehabilitated its mined-out areas back into a forest full of local plant species, rice fields, fishponds, and a sanctuary for wildlife in just a span of seven years.
It has built a peaceful, clean, and green community which has provided homes for families together with Gawad Kalinga, a hospital with modern equipment, a school run by La Salle which has over 50 units iMacs for the pupils, a guest lodge and clubhouse with a swimming pool and tennis courts, a restaurant with good food and karaoke sets, a cooperative store, and markets to provide for their basic needs, and jobs for the community people.
If not for Nickel Asia Corp. there, barangay Rio Tuba and the municipality of Bataraza in Palawan would have remained rural, unprogressive, with high unemployment rate, and helpless.
I admit that I had been quick to conclude that mining is bad since the horrible destruction I saw in Sagada 13 years ago, but after witnessing a responsible mining company, I realized that it does way more good than harm.
Indeed, the eye cannot see what the mind does not know.
What I saw up in the mountains of Sagada was something I would instantly call out on; but what I saw by the beach in Rio Tuba, Batazara was a truly responsible mining site that I will always promote and be proud of. (Maria Alissa Z. Lacson)
