‘Kalinga should come up with a mining blueprint’

TABUK CITY, KALINGA – Amidst moves to revive the defunct Batong Buhay Gold Mines (BBGM) in Pasil, this province, and the development of at least one more mine in the same mineral-rich town, there is a need for the provincial government to formulate a blueprint for mining, a local cooperative leader said.

Manny Onalan, 49, president of the 100-strong Kalinga Tawid Development Cooperative (KTDC), said that this is imperative so that the provincial government will not just be reacting to but preempting problems brought about by the entry of mining in the province.

Onalan said that the presence of a blueprint could also help the resource owners to have one voice relative to the development, extraction and management of their mining resources.

Onalan said the blueprint should be anchored on the vision-mission of the Kalinga for the area to become an agro-industrial and tourism hub “otherwise we should do away with the vision-mission of the province.”

Onalan said that as far as KTDC whose members produce and market organic agricultural products is concerned, the vision-mission of the province is more in tune with small scale-mining than with large-scale mining.

“The negative impacts of small-scale mining could easily be remedied. There are existing technologies which are perfected for small-scale mining. There are modern water technologies which could clean the water used in small-scale mining areas before being released to the main stream. On the other hand, profit is the driving force of large-scale mining so if the measures to protect the environment will cause so much and make the operations unprofitable, they will be abandon this to the detriment of the environment,” Onalan said.

Onalan also said that the local economy will benefit more from small-scale mining than in large-scale mining where the company takes out the bulk of the output of its operations.

Onalan claimed that if the provincial government has a blueprint, not only will the ill effects to the environment of mining be mitigated or avoided but the social unrest they could cause will likewise be averted as the interest of the people who will be affected by the negative impact of mining will be taken into account.

“If the interest of the people downstream whose lives depend on the Chico River will not be considered, it is likely that there will be a conflict between them and whoever will push for mining. What would make things worse is the invocation by the owner of the company of the police powers of the state to protect its operations. It would say that since the government has issued it a license to operate, its operations should not be disrupted. In response, the government will deploy the military in the area which in turn will draw the opposing force. This happened in the 80s when the Batong Buhay first operated and it could happen again,” Onalan said.

Onalan said that a confrontation between the downstream dwellers and the resource owners and their partners could be avoided if the blueprint will treat the Chico River – the Pasil River which passes through the mining areas is one of the tributaries of the Chico River – as the economic backbone and lifeblood of the province.

“We cannot compromise the river with short-term economic returns. The bulk of the benefits from mining will be taken out of the province while the water and the plains of the province are perpetual venues for agriculture and other related industries,” Onalan said.

Regarding the position of DA Sec. Arthur Yap that agriculture and mining could co-exist, Onalan asked when did that ever happen in this country.

Onalan also said that with regards to mining, the vision-mission of the province dictates that its metal resources should be processed into finished products to maximize their added value before being released to the open market.

“If we only serve as a quarry, we will not be maximizing our resources. We will only get the cost of our labor and the value of a small portion of the resource extracted,” Onalan said.

Onalan is not absolutely against large-scale mining “but it should be moved to a future time when the technology to mitigate its environmental impact becomes available and when we will be equipped to process the gold into finished products.” **By Estanislao Albano, Jr., ZZW

P1.7B-worth of projects in Kalinga launched

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Eleven packages under the SONA (state of the nation address) projects of the administration with a combined cost of P1.7B were simultaneously launched on March 30, 2009 during the groundbreaking of the new Canao Bridge at Calanan, this city.

Congressman Manuel Agayao said that the packages consist of the widening and pavement of the Bontoc-Tabuk-Tuguegarao Road from Tinglayan to Bulanao, this city, including the replacement of the 50-year old Canao Bridge which spans the Chico River.

Agyao said that the joint launching is in accordance with the austerity policy of President Gloria Arroyo.

Agyao said that the road projects are part of the program of Arroyo to improve the roads to the tourism areas in the country adding that the stretch from Mt. Data, Mtn. Province to Tuguegarao City is originally targeted to be completed before the end of her term on June 30, 2010.

“Our office gave the completion target as December this year,” Agyao said.

Regarding the new Canao Bridge which is a 280-meter long Prestressed Concrete Girder V Bridge composed of eight spans and seven piers, DPWH-CAR OIC Roy Manao said that the contract price is P160M exclusive of the approaches.

He called upon Agyao to work for the funding of the approaches and also for the covering of the old bridge so that it could be used as a picnic area “to serve it’s historical purpose.”

The engineering profession has acknowledged that a remarkable engineering feat attended the construction of the bridge in the late 50s.

Juanito Bolislis, a former journalist and one of the laborers during the construction of the US-PI Friendship Bridge which would be renamed Canao Bridge in 1997 in honor of Congressman Antonio Canao who first broached the idea of spanning the Chico River to facilitate travel to the Tabuk Valley, related during the groundbreaking that during the preparation of the foundation of Pier 3, all the engineers and work crew left for Tuguegarao City “for human necessity” or for a “good time.”

When they came back a few days later than scheduled, they gave the go signal for the concreting without checking the form works such that two weeks later, it was discovered that Pier 3 was misaligned with the other piers by .3 meter and was 2.6 meters away from where it is supposed to be.

The decision reached during a symposium called by then Public Works Secretary Florencio Moreno was to demolish the pier but project engineer Mauricio Buenaventura asked that he be given a month to correct his error.

The surrounding of the pier was excavated and then the underneath of the pier was drilled to give room to steel pipes to serve as rollers then the pier was moved into proper place with the use of mechanical jacks.

The feat was featured in an international engineering magazine as “the first time in the history of engineering that such a big volume of concrete and steel embedded five meters in the rock underground could be moved by mechanical means.”

Bolislis who incidentally owns the land on both sides of the western approach to the Canao Bridge was given a certificate of appreciation during the groundbreaking for donating 7,000 square meters for the approach of the new bridge which is a few meters downstream of the existing one. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW

Tabuk not yet ready to concede defeat on issue of cityhood

TABUK CITY, KALINGA – In the face of the alleged denial of the motion for reconsideration of the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) that the cityhood laws of the 16 “new cities” including this city are unconstitutional, Mayor Camilo Lammawin, Jr. told the media that the city is not yet giving up.

He did not, however, say if that is the position of the 15 other “new cities.”

Citing information from an insider, Lammawin said that the high court during its session last Tuesday junked the motion for reconsideration on a vote of 6-5, the same vote when the court struck down the new status of the 16 local government units last October.

The insider said that Justices Arturo Brion, Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Leonardo Quisumbing, Dante Tinga and Deosdado Peralta voted against the 16 cities while Justices Renato Corona, Teresita Leornardo-de Castro, Minita Chico-Nazario, Presbitero Velasco, Jr. and Consuelo Ynares-Santiago voted in their favor. Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Justice Eduardo Natchura inhibited themselves.

Lammawin commented that the real motive of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) for challenging the cityhood laws in the SC is not constitutionality but money as they claim that the conversion of the 16 “new cities” reduces their internal revenue allotments (IRAs) because there are more now sharing the portion for cities of the national internal revenue pie.

Lammawin contended that the conversion of the 16 cities could not be unconstitutional because conversions of towns are done through the guidelines of the Local Government Code or RA 7160, a law which has been passed by Congress and which it also has the prerogative to amend.

The LCP argued that the cityhood laws are unconstitutional because, according to the Constitution, the conversion of towns should follow the process set in RA 7160 and the cityhood laws violate RA 9009 which amended RA 7160 by raising the income requirement for towns applying to become cities from P20M to P100M exclusive of their IRA.

Lammawin maintains that as deliberated, RA 9009 had exempted the 16 cities from the new income requirement on the premise that their cityhood bills were already pending in Congress when RA 9009 was passed in 2001. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW