Disclosures on jueteng and mining

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The Full Disclosure Policy in the “Tapatan Roadshow” with main actor Sec. Jesse Robredo of the local governments department (DILG) aims to promote transparency, accountability and good governance at the local government unit level.

Part of the roadshow was the signing of the Covenant of Commitment to the Full Disclosure Policy tablet here participated in by around 400 LGU officials who came from different parts of the region.

Sec. Robredo said, this was nothing new as this was already part of the DILG reform program dubbed “Biyaheng Pinoy: Tapat na Palakad, Bayang Maunlad” and in line with PNoy’s “daang matuwid” program. That is why Sec. Robredo was honest when he admitted that the strategy to put in place the STL as the tool to kill jueteng in the country failed.

He further admitted that now we have policemen who are already tired of arresting jueteng kubradores because the bet collectors sport STL IDs. They do not know which hand of the kubrador is legal – the right hand or the left hand?

He also disclosed that the government is losing a lot of money and resources and policemen were only wasting their efforts in fighting jueteng. Accordingly, STL submitted or reported an income of P900 M for the whole year that was equivalent to its income for one-month only. STL was expected to submit at least P12 billion as its anticipated income for a year.

In the presscon that followed the tapatan roadshow, Sec. Robredo did not answer, or maybe intentionally did not want to answer the question, “What happened to the one-strike policy for police heads?”

Apparently, no police head was removed from office because those concerned did not want to implement the “one-strike policy.” Although it was very clear to the public that the police simply turned a blind eye to jueteng operations in their locality, which all the more makes the public suspect that the police are in cahoots with the operators or were protecting the operators. What happened instead was that the “one strike policy” was the one that was struck down.

In La Trinidad, a “disclosure” by a councilor revealed that for at least four months since they sat as officials last year, he had been receiving some P100,000 a month from jueteng operators who were then operating jai-alai joints, while his colleagues were getting P10,000 per month at P5,000 every 15 days.

He admitted too that now he only receives P10K because negotiation with the gambling operators was taken away from him by his colleagues who assigned another councilor to nail the final deal.

Now, the question about how much the other officials and the police chief are getting vanishes in the pesticide-scented air in this town’s strawberry fields because the better question that should be to answered is “who is receiving for them?”
***
Another full disclosure was divulged to a group of working newsmen who learned about the entry of the fourth biggest mining company in the world to Lepanto Mining.

Consultant Felice Yeban of Gold Fields Philippines disclosed that the company would be investing some US$340 million in Lepanto after finding out in 18 months if everything is economically feasible.

Louis Pawid III, the more enterprising cousin of newsman Jorge Pawid who coordinated the mining forum at the Mt. Data Hotel said Gold Fields gave Lepanto a non-refundable US$10 million to pay off retrenched personnel plus a non-refundable down-payment of US$44 Million after it agreed to the 18-month period.

In case Gold Fields decided to continue operating even before the 18-month lapsed, it would release US$66 Million with the final payment of $220 million payable until the expiration of the option period on March 12, 2012.

Engr. Rolly Reyes of Lepanto, Engr. Roland Aquino and Amy Nisperos of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the DENR helped the newsmen understand more details behind the gold dust and how Gold Fields and Lepanto would extract the deep-seated gold minerals under Mankayan.

Hence, there is a need for Gold Fields to look into the social acceptability of the project by the communities it would be interacting with in so many years to come, and whose gold it would be extracting.

In his bid to protect the rights and interests of his people, Mankayan Mayor Matt Luspian asked Gold Fields to follow legal procedures in winning the hearts of the people.

Apart from bringing in social development projects, Mayor Luspian asked Gold Fields to prioritize local employment and stressed the need to protect the environment.

And apart from strictly living up to the spirit in the application of Corporate Social Responsibility, it should go beyond building basketball courts and waiting sheds.

In the evening at the end of the mining conference, a new disclosure hidden by the Pines around Mt. Data revealed itself – that Gold Fields should be able to mine out not only gold, but extract also the priceless participation of the residents in community development.- marchfianza777@yahoo.com