KORONADAL CITY – Presidential candidate and labor leader Leodegario “Ka Leody” de Guzman marched in the streets of this city Monday to support moves to retain the ban on open-pit mining in South Cotabato. He is the first and only contender for the country’s top post to make a categorical position in the landmark provincial measure.
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of South Cotabato has been deliberating petitions to lift the ban on open-pit mining, the method eyed for the controversial $5.9-billion Tampakan project, said to be the largest undeveloped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia.
“Dapat naman [i-reject sila]. Bakit mo naman iboboto ang mga taong hindi sumasang-ayon sa kagustuhan ng mamamayan? E kabaliktaran yun, di ba? Tapusin na natin ang pagboto dun sa mga taong mga nasa tuktok, yung mga mayayaman kasi papaboran lang niyan ang mga mayayaman din” , De Guzman told reporters. “Dahil yan babawi at ang susuportahan ay yung nagbibigay sa kanila ng pondo tulad ng mga miners, korporasyon ng mining, ang paglilikuran niyan ay hindi ang mga bumoto sa kanila” , he stressed.
The committee report proposing to lift the ban on open-pit mining was authored by reelectionist South Cotabato board member Hilario de Pedro VI, chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. He is the son of the late former South Cotabato governor Hilario de Pedro III. De Guzman belittled the mining industry’s economic impact, noting that “its contribution is less than one percent of the country’s gross domestic product and generated not even 0.5 percent of the country’s total employment.”
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