Three nights ago I was able to watch Abner Mercado’s Krusada featuring Palawan’s controversial mining industry. Being a mineral-rich province, Palawan has served a hotspot for mining in the Philippines since the 70’s.
Mining in Rio Tuba, Palawan (Image courtesy of Google Images)
As it their only source of livelihood, farmers who were interviewed expressed devastatation about the damage that the farmlands in the town of Narra had suffered due to the activity. One farmer was so outraged and frustrated she was bawling out the entire interview. The sight of these people coming to tears and the obvious damage the environment has been continuously put under was heart wrenching. It was also disturbing that just last January, an activist pushing the anti-mining campaign in Palawan- Dr. Gerry Mendoza – was killed advancing the said crusade.
Now I don’t want to be narrow-minded here and insist on sticking to just one side of the coin. Because whether we admit it or not, we too, as consumers benefit from mining. Minerals are intrinsic sources of energy: the copper wires used for our phones and laptops, the nickel used for our household appliances, the gold and diamond that adorn our ring fingers. Too, there are small-scale laborers working in these mining areas whose families depend largely on mining.
For now, there are still minerals available to be extracted and as long as there are, there are jobs to suffice our mineros. But whose blood is next to be spilt? What happens when we run out of mountains to rake? What happens when a great portion of land can not be used to sustain food anymore? What happens when the residue of these mines reach the nearby seas and destroy the meager coral reef we have that’s vital to marine life? When all we have is technology and a dying earth? Surely these are questions that we can not ignore in this short-sighted age of advancement.
Much as the debate on this issue always encourages dichotomous thinking and sparks division in an already-divided nation, this is not the time to point fingers at anyone, or to whine about the government. Best we can do is to realize our part in saving what is still left of Palawan’s biodiversity.
I am not an environmentalist nor an activist. But having having explored Palawan’s beauty, I feel strongly about the matter. I don’t abhor mining; I believe there is such thing as responsible mining where minerals can be extracted from lands that have no other ecological bearing and where no co-existing harm will be yielded in the process. I also believe in environmental conservation and pursuing it so my children can still experience for themselves the last great ecological frontier of the country.
We have this saying in Tagalog “Laging nasa huli ang pagsisi.” (For the non-Tagalog speaking audience, the phrase translates to “Regret always comes at the end”). Please let it not be the case for Palawan. Support the No To Mining in Palawan Signature Campaign. As the campaign says, ang yaman ng Palawan ay yaman ng Pilipinas. If you are one of those who want to savor Palawan’s natural awe with your friends, your family, yourself some age or another, please click on the link below, sign the online petition and spread the word. We need 10 million signatures to hopefully further this cause with success. Palawan direly needs your help right now.
Official Online Petition Site:
*NOTE: I tried to sign up on this site, but the site seems to be temporarily down for three days now. You may want to check back time and again. If it still doesn’t work, there’s a similar website by the Aldaw group where you can sign instead. This is the website I used:
Aldaw Online Petition Site:
