MORE NEWS, NUEVA VIZCAYA

Mayor hits NV board over mine exploration pact
BY JOAN CAPUNA

QUEZON, Nueva Vizcaya — The mayor of this mineral-rich town said he was disappointed over a resolution seeking to stop the exploration activities here of a large-scale mining company without consulting him.

The resolution was passed by the committees on environment, indigenous peoples, and legal affairs of the Nueva Vizcaya provincial Board.

Quezon Mayor Aurelio Salunat said the committees held a series of hearings
attended by anti-mining and pro-mining groups, but he was deliberately not invited.

"I feel insulted that no less than my partymates in Abante Nueva Vizcaya, who are in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, were the ones who joined forces to shut down the legal source of the livelihood for my constituents without consulting me as a matter of protocol and basic ethics," Salunat said.

"At the expense of the welfare of my constituents, they gave weight to a letter of Runruno Land Owners Association opposing the duly approved mining exploration of FCF Mining Corp. based merely on speculative claims instead of an actual investigation at the exploration site. How can they come up with an intelligent conclusion when they don’t even know the real score in Runruno," Salunat said.

The mayor said that the sangguniang bayan should also have been given the chance to air it stand on RULANAS complaint.

Salunat, incumbent president of the Nueva Vizcaya Teachers Employees and Retirees Association said he feared if the exploration project is shut down it would lead to the starvation of some 300 workers and their families.

It would also cause the layoff of 20 school teachers whose salaries are being by the company.

The FCF Mining Corp., through its development arm Runruno Livelihood Foundation, spent P36 million in the last two years on community development, infrastructure facilities, skills trainings, feeding programs, medical missions, environmental rehabilitation, livelihood projects and education.

"You can imagine the economic dislocation, unemployment and stoppage of all development programs and scholarship opportunities for our youth. The municipal government cannot provide for these basic services because it was literally bankrupt when I took over," he said.

"Can the province provide jobs for displaced workers? When my people get hungry, they get angry. If they are forced to go to the mountains, I may even join them," Salunat warned,

Earlier, in his weekly radio program, Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said that large-scale mining projects duly approved by the national government cannot just be stopped unless they violate provisions of the mining law.

Patricio Dumlao Jr., the only one of the 12 board members who voted against the resolution believed that President Arroyo would order an investigation on claims that the mining project violated any provision of the Mining Act before she acts on the resolution.

"I keep reminding my colleagues that while the SP has the privilege of passing a resolution to air its views against a large-scale mining project, it does not mean that it can go against the mining law," Dumlao said.