Mining and Natural Hazard Vulnerability in the Philippines : Digging to Development or Digging to Disaster?

Mining and Natural Hazard Vulnerability in the Philippines_9781783080519
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Copyright
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
LIST OF ACRONYMS
INTRODUCTION
Phenomenon under Study: Mining amid Natural Hazards
Neoliberalism: A Controversial Paradigm
The Disciplinary Location of this Book: Geography
The four traditions of geography
Mining: A fruitful topic of geographical research
Political ecology: A geography-based research field
The Demarcation of an Important Caveat
The Outline of the Book
Chapter One MINING IN THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippines: A Developing Country in Southeast Asia
An introduction to the archipelago
A developing country
A society dominated by an oligarchy
Class structure in pre-Hispanic society
The Spanish colonial period, 1568–1896
The revolution of 1896
The American colonial period, 1898–1946
The Bell Parity Amendments
A poorly performing economy
A landscape of poverty and marginalization
Spaces of vulnerability
A landscape of violence
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front
The New People’s Army
Poverty: The common denominators of both insurgencies
Overseas Filipino workers: Modern heroes
Mineral Resources of the Philippines
The History of Large-Scale Mining in the Philippines
Chapter Two GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE MINING
The Ascendency of Neoliberalism
Modernity: Trust and confidence in experts
Economics as a discourse of modernity
The origins of neoliberalism
Neoliberalism in the Developing World
Structuralism: The precursor to neoliberalism
The role of the World Bank
Neoliberalism and Mining
Neoliberalism in the Philippines
Import substitution industrialization during the 1950s
Export promotion under Diosdado Macapagal
Ferdinand Marcos and enhanced export promotion
Fidel Ramos: Philippines 2000
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: The ideal neoliberal subject
Neoliberalism and Mining in the Philippines
Prospects for the mining industry to the year 2000
The Mining Act of 1995
A reinvigorated mining industry
Mining: A Leading Engine for Economic Growth
Chapter Three ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF MINING
Mining: An Activity with Substantial Potential for Environmental Harm
Mining’s Visual Impacts
Impacts on Biodiversity
Acid Mine Drainage
Mining’s most serious environmental effect
Measuring acid mine drainage
The mobilization of heavy metals
Acid mine drainage: Difficult to predict and prevent, impossible to stop
Subaqueous Tailings Disposal: The Solution to Acid Mine Drainage?
Tailings dam failures
Selected tailings dam failures
The Marcopper tailings spill on the island of Marinduque
Chemical Spills from Mining Operations
Cyanide: A chemical agent used in modern mining
Mercury: A by-product of mining
Mining’s Impacts on Water Resources
Mining’s Impacts upon the Social Environment
Mining: Clearly an Activity with Substantial Potential for Environmental Harm
Chapter Four MINING AMID NATURAL HAZARDS
The Philippines: Spaces of Hazard
Typhoons: One of the World’s Most Powerful Atmospheric Phenomena
Typhoons: Tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific
The four characteristics of typhoons
Vulnerability of the Philippines to typhoons
Mining and typhoons
Typhoons and climate change: An increasing risk
Earthquakes: Extreme Seismic Risk
Earthquakes: A release of geologic energy
Vulnerability of the Philippines to earthquakes
Mining and earthquakes
Tsunamis: Seismically Induced Floods
Tsunamis: Seismic sea waves
Tsunamis in the Philippines
Mining and tsunamis
Volcanoes: An Additional Source of Seismic Activity
Volcanoes: Extrusive igneous phenomenon
Volcanoes in the Philippines
Volcanoes and mining
El Niño–Induced Drought: An Abrupt Decrease in Rainfall
The El Niño Southern Oscillation: An alteration of global weather patterns
The effect of El Niño in the Philippines
El Niño–induced drought and mining
El Niño–induced drought and climate change
Synergistic Relations between Hazards
Synergistic effects between natural hazards
Natural hazards and anthropogenic environmental degradation
How These Hazards Can Create a Disaster
Disaster defined
The concept of vulnerability
Poverty: An important determinant of vulnerability
The Philippines: Spaces of vulnerability
The high population density of the archipelago
Poverty in rural areas
The reliance of the rural poor upon subsistence agriculture and aquaculture
Indigenous peoples: The most marginalized of the marginalized
The Philippines: Too Dangerous for Mining?
Mining and the Bataan Nuclear Plant: Risky Activities in a Hazard-Prone Country?
Chapter Five TECHNOCRATIC RESPONSES TO THE RISKS
Government and Industry Awareness of the Risks
Environmental Impact Assessment: A Tool of Environmental Management?
Introduction to environmental impact assessment
Environmental impact assessment in the Philippines
Environmental impact assessment of mining projects
The outline of the process
A process designed for rapid approval
The importance of environmentally critical areas as spaces of vulnerability
Assessing the adequacy of the environmental impact assessment system
Public participation in the environmental impact assessment process
The importance of participatory planning in disaster risk reduction
The discretionary nature of public hearings
A narrow definition of who may participate
Inadequate dissemination of information
Arnstein’s hierarchy of citizen participation
A denial of environmental justice
Technology as the Solution to the Risks
Technology can prevent disasters
Technological responses: A controversial topic
The pollution haven hypothesis
Best practices in environmental management
Industry reluctance to bear the necessary costs
Government reluctance to mandate the appropriate technology
Technology is only as good as the people who use it
Australian and Canadian mining companies operating in an unfamiliar environment
Weak Governance of Mining in the Philippines
The concept of governance
The capture of the state by powerful forces
A lack of state resources to regulate mining properly
Conflicts of interest at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
The high levels of corruption prevailing in the Philippines
Corruption in the Philippines
Quantifying corruption
Corruption and consent
Low levels of civil liberties in the Philippines
The extrajudicial killings
The concept of extrajudicial killings
The magnitude and location of the killings
The methodology of the killings
The role of Major General Jovito Palparan
The killings of antimining activists
The extrajudicial killings as a violent dimension of neoliberalism
From Technological Solutions to Risk Society
Chapter Six RISK SOCIETY IN THE PHILIPPINES
Technocratic Solutions as Modernity
Mining as Ecological Modernization
With technology, environmental problems will not be obstacles to economic growth
Mining: A discourse of ecological modernization par excellence
Risk Society: A Rejection of Modernity
Traditional society, industrial society and risk society
Traditional society: Risks beyond the ambit of human control
Industrial society: Risks emanating from wide-scale social forces
Risk society: The inability of humans to control their own technologies
Large-scale mining in the Philippines: An example of risk society
An extension of risk society into new terrains
The stratified distribution of the risks
How the poor bear the costs
How the rich receive the benefits
Civil Society Opposition to Mining: A Lack of Faith in Technology
Modernity: A concept with shallow roots in the Philippines
Civil society in the Philippines
Social movements as vehicles for change
The opposition of the Roman Catholic Church to mining
Armed opposition of the New People’s Army
The opposition of local government units
A localized backlash against mining
Local governments in the Philippines
Civil society access to local government units
The withholding of consent by local governments
Local government mining moratoriums
The Alternative Mining Bill
Progressive legislation in response to the risks
A prohibition of mining in hazard-prone areas
A calamity protection fund
The management of tailings dams
From Risk Society to the Viability of Mining
Chapter Seven MINING AS A FLAWED DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM
Mining: A Questionable Development Strategy
The Twin Pillars of Sustainable Development
Mining: A Lack of Benefits to Current Generations
Mining: A poor source of employment creation
Mining: A low scope for tax revenues
A lack of linkages to other industries
The volatility of mineral prices
The long-term downward trend of real mineral prices
The falling real prices of minerals over time
The phenomenon of dematerialization
The recent rise in commodity prices
The recent rise in gold prices
The resource curse thesis
The crowding out of other economic sectors
The phenomenon known as the Dutch disease
Dutch disease and overseas Filipino workers
Mining and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Mining and the New People’s Army
The extent of the overlap
Revolutionary taxation of mining companies
Mining projects as a source of weapons for the NPA
Mining as an NPA grievance mechanism
The militarization of mining areas
The illusion of mining’s ancillary benefits
The finite nature of mineral deposits
Mining Imposes Costs on Future Generations: A Lack of Intergenerational Equity
Mines require perpetual attention upon closure
The substantial expense of mine reclamation
Examples from the United States
Mine reclamation requirements in the Philippines
An inadequate amount of funds for mine reclamation
A finite time period for the management of a perpetual problem
The lack of a public fund for mine reclamation
A Lack of Widespread Benefits: A Lack of Intragenerational Equity
Mining as Development Aggression
The concept of development aggression
The concept of appropriate development
Answering the Questionable Development Strategy
Chapter Eight IS ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE?
Mining: A Flawed Development Model
Land Reform
The importance of land reform in the Philippines
Land reform and insurgency
The history of land reform in the Philippines
Land reform during the Commonwealth period: 1935–41
Land reform during the 1950s
Land reform under Corazon Aquino, 1986–92
Land reform under neoliberalism: 2001–11
The (in)adequacy of land reform in the Philippines
The Sustainable Use of Natural Resources to Meet Local Needs
The preservation of biodiversity
The Philippines: A biodiversity hotspot
The importance of biodiversity
The preservation of ethnodiversity
The importance of community-based conservation
The role of the National Integrated Protected Areas System
Evaluating community-based conservation in the Philippines
The basic ecclesial community movement: Participatory development
Postmodern public administration
The basic ecclesial community movement in the Philippines
Sustainable livelihood programs for the poor
Herbal medicine programs
Zones of peace
Grassroots environmentalism
Bottom-up instead of top-down development
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX