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THE PHILIPPINES
By Travis Q. Lyday
The Republic of the Philippines, which is a developing Local opposition to large-scale mining projects was established
democratic republic, is located just north of the equator about principally owing to the collapse of a tailings dam at the
1,100 kilometers (km) east of the coast of the mainland of Marcopper copper mine on the island of Marinduque in 1996
Southeast Asia. The country is an archipelago that comprises that was owned and operated by Placer Dome Inc., also of
7,000 islands, of which fewer than 900 are inhabited by the Canada. The waste from the dams failure contaminated a
countrys 78 million people; the major islands are Luzon in the major river system and destroyed the livelihoods of farmers
north, Visayas in the middle, and Mindanao in the south. The and shermen of Marinduque, which is only about 50 km from
archipelago is within the Pacic Rim of Fire, which is so- Mindoro Oriental (Drillbits & Tailings, 2002).
called because of the intense volcanic activity at the margins
of the tectonic plates and is well-known for epithermal gold, Environmental Issues
porphyry copper-gold, and volcanic-hosted massive sulde
deposits (U.S. Department of State, 20031). The Department of the Environment and Natural Resources
In 2002, the Philippines was a signicant producer of (DENR) was the primary Government agency responsible for
chromite, copper, gold, and nickel and had in the recent past conservation, management, development, and proper use of
ranked among the worlds top 10 producers. Other important the countrys natural resources, which included its minerals.
mineral commodities were coal, gypsum, silver, and sulfur. The Departments of Agrarian Reform and of Agriculture were
Signicant deposits of clay, limestone, marble, phosphate, and secondary environmentally oriented Government agencies.
silica also occur. Until the early 1990s, the mineral industry, The Philippines environmental problems included air
which was considered to be the backbone of the countrys pollution from motor vehicles, air and water pollution from
economy, contributed about 30% to the countrys gross domestic mining operations and other industrial activities, soil erosion,
product (GDP). By 2002, however, the mining industrys uncontrolled deforestation, and natural phenomena such as
contribution had dropped to about 2% of the $77.1 billion earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, typhoons, and volcanic
GDP (Resource Information Unit, 2002, p. 21; U.S. Embassy, activity.
Manila, Philippines, 2002; U.S. Department of State, 2003). The international environmental agreements that the
This drop has been attributed to the effects of low international Philippines was party to were Biodiversity, Climate Change,
metal prices accompanied by high operating and production Desertication, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
costs, political instability, labor problems, a global slump of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
in exploration expenditures, and such natural disasters as Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
earthquakes, oods, landslides, tsunamis, typhoons, and Timber 94, and Wetlands. The Philippines has signed but had
volcanic eruptions. not ratied the Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol (U.S. Central
The GDP growth rate in the Philippines accelerated from Intelligence Agency, 2003).
3.4% in 2001 to 4.6% in 2002 owing mainly to the resilience
of the service sector, gains in the industrial sectors output, and Production
increased exports (U.S. Department of State, 2003).
Although the Philippines did not rank within the top 10
Government Policies and Programs of world producers for any mineral commodity in 2002, the
country did rank 11th in mined nickel production in 2002 (Kuck,
In February, the Mindoro Oriental Province legislated a 25- 2003).
year moratorium on all major mining projects in the region. The Philippines was the worlds second leading producer of
The ordinance established that it was unlawful for any person geothermal power after the United States. Geothermal power
or entity to engage in land clearing, prospecting, exploration, accounted for about 16% of the countrys installed power
drilling, excavation, mining, or transport of mineral ores generation capacity, which was about 45 million megawatts
preparatory to all forms of mining operations until 2027. (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2003).
The decree, which took 6 months to pass, essentially was to
prohibit Crew Development Corp. of Canada from developing Trade
a large-scale nickel-cobalt mining project in the area that would
straddle two provinces, the other being Mindoro Occidental. Japan was the primary market for Philippine mineral products.
A majority of Philippine copper concentrates and nearly all
1
References that include a section mark () are found in the Internet the countrys production of nickel were exported to Japan.
References Cited section. Philippine Associated Smelting and Rening Corp. (PASAR)
e
Estimated; estimated data are rounded to no more than three significant digits; may not add to total shown. rRevised. -- Zero.
1
Table includes data through September 11, 2003.
2
In addition to the commodities listed, the Philippines produced platinum-group metals as byproducts of other metals, but output was not reported
quantitatively and no basis is available to make reliable estimates.
3
Reported figure.
4
Included "pebbles" and "soil" not further described.
5
Excluded limestone for road construction.
6
Included materials described as rock, crushed or broken; stones, cobbles, and boulders; rock aggregates; and broken adobe.