Mining in ASEAN ruins both nature and people

A Paracale miner panning for gold. On a visit in 2010, the mercury level was so high that Ban Toxics’ instruments could not measure it. (Photo by Aznar)

“The adverse social impact on the affected communities, especially on our indigenous brothers and sisters, far outweigh the gains promised by large-scale mining corporations. Our people living in the mountains and along the affected shorelines can no longer avail of the bounty of nature.” stated by the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines in 1998.

It is known that the Philippines is one of the best tourist spots, with scenic views, amazing food, and the worst rate of deforestation. While Sibuyan municipality, in which the mining lease is located is proposed to be declared as a Tourism Development Area, a nickel mine in Hinatuan Island is half the size of the APMC concession on Sibuyan.

Other than that, with the already murky brown water that are filled with forced child labour, the miners go deeper, until underwater tunnels could collapse or the compressor that provides air may fail.

A solution proposed by the delegates of India, United States of America, Japan, and Australia in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM), named Environmental Leadership and Liability Accord (ELLA). 4 pillars are holding this solution’s foundation, which are to have a standardised baseline studies, voluntary code of conduct, a robust monitoring network, and capacity building measures. 

However, the fact is that the benefits of ELLA ruin the very limited environment, which is being ignored and damaged further with the current idea AMEM has planned to set. 

Delegate of Australia stated that, “with the nickel mining being produced, it allows more benefits for every ASEAN members, including the countries in AMEM.” 

Despite the idea of increasing nickel mining production being a boost for our economy, since the Philippines is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel ore, high deforestation and environmental damage rates are linked to nickel mining. Moreover, communities are being exposed to heavy metal contamination linked to nickel mining from the air, water and food chain.

Furthermore, AMEM ministers have stated that they are using ASEAN engineers to aid in the ELLA plan. However, indigenous people and workers are working tirelessly at their current underpaid and underappreciated job. If there is ever a moment where there are only ASEAN engineers aiding in ELLA mainly, the job opportunities that the current indigenous people have decrease, threatening their livelihoods.

Moreover, indigenous land is being taken away just to generate more “clean” energy for ASEAN. Unfortunately, the ELLA solution seems short-term in impact, whereby a single dispute can cause the entire solution to crash down due to insufficient funding, making their entire ELLA solution fragile, as 8 out of the 11 countries have only less than USD$10K gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Even with these all negative highlights of what seems to be supposedly evident to everyone, the AMEM council still proudly says that ELLA and other similar solutions provide mind-blowing benefits and that they are sure everyone is benefitted through this solution. 

“There is a clear power asymmetry between workers, on one side, and the mining and subcontractors companies, on the other. Fear of retribution is a factor, many of them said they simply do not make complaints ‘to avoid trouble’ said Olano.

Despite all these solutions to aid ASEAN and Philippines in “clean” energy, it does not help us marginalised groups that are thrown under the rug, working tirelessly while the people of high power and money indulge in their so-called successes. Once again, the rich and the popular political leaders benefitting off of the hard work of labourers, who are paid lesser and lesser, and are hidden from the public view.

By Kenice Leow Ke Ying, Mirza Adriansyah Bin Muhmmad Syariff, and Rabe Ralph Yohan Ledesma