http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=jojoRobles_may24_2006

SOMETHING called the Commission on Ethics and Advocacy, purportedly based in Aquinas University in Legazpi City, e-mailed a 22-point rejoinder to a recent column about the recently submitted report on the mining operations in Rapu-Rapu Island, Albay.

Other than the obvious conclusion that they seem to love the word “commission” over there (as in, the “Bastes Commission”), the e-mail provides no enlightenment whatsoever on the issues of employment and business generation, investor confidence and the general effect on the economy of the decidedly biased, bishop-led body that gave its predictable report last week to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

These were the issues we raised: that the commission (the Malacañang-appointed one, of course) was patently biased against mining in whatever shape, form or method; that perhaps the new management of the mine should be given a chance to test its new measures to prevent any adverse effects on the environment before being summarily condemned; that the economy would suffer from such an adverse verdict because investors would definitely shy away from what they perceive to be yet another attempt to change the rules of the game after the game has started.

And next time, maybe this commission (the anonymous one) will put a name to its letters and keep them short. That way, we’ll gladly run them in this section. Unfortunately, because of issues of newspaper style, we cannot promise to use boldface type for idiomatic English expressions like those that peppered the e-mail of the writer or writers of the 22-point letter. Deal?

That said, other letter-writers (real people who ask to remain anonymous after giving real names, and who do not seem to belong to any commission) have pointed out some intriguing sidelights of the recent submission of the report on the Rapu-Rapu mine operations.

For instance, in a report aired over ABS-CBN’s primetime TV Patrol World news program, Bishop Arturo Bastes was asked point-blank if he was indeed antimining. The good bishop categorically said “No.” Then the report “cut” to the video of the same bishop announcing to a crowd in Rapu-Rapu earlier this year that he was indeed— like most Catholic bishops, he said— against all forms of mining.

Then there was the press conference last Thursday, a day ahead of the submission of the final report to the Palace, where the vice chairman of the Bastes Commission was asked by reporters if the body was unanimous in its position. The vice chairman said “yes.” Later, one of the commissioners, Gregorio Tabuena, announced that he refused to sign the report and was in fact writing a dissenting opinion.

As Billy Joel once sang, it’s really a matter of trust.

* * *
Oh, and yes. We did receive a copy of the executive summary of the fact-finding report prepared by Bastes and his commission, which was, in its words, created “to investigate the effects of the mining operations of Lafayette Philippines Inc. on people’s health and environmental safety in the municipalities of Rapu-Rapu in the province of Albay and Prieto Diaz, Gubat, Barcelona, Bulusan and Bacon in the province of Sorsogon.”

Such a long-winded and specific mandate, one would surmise, would limit the commission to very definite investigations and recommendations. But did the report limit itself to its ultra-specific mandate?

The answer, sadly, is no.

The Bastes Commission gave 10 recommendations, only five of which were about “the effects of mining operations on people’s health and environmental safety,” its stated purpose for being.
The other five were recommendations to cancel the registration of Lafayette as a special economic zone; to have the BIR investigate the mine operator for alleged underreporting of ore production and for purported violation of tax laws; to rescind all the mine’s government-granted tax incentives; to order Lafayette Group to pay all back taxes equivalent to those waived because of incentives for the whole duration of their mining operations; and to review the Philippine Mining Act, “specifically the provisions on the ownership and management of mining firms and operations.”

And here we were thinking that this was all about the environmental and health hazards of two cyanide spills that took place in a mine site in October last year. No wonder investors in the newly resurgent mining industry are panicking.
If the Bastes Commission wasn’t pushing a clear antimining agenda, then I don’t know what it was doing.

Maybe they need another commission—one that will investigate the Bastes Commission. And all the other “commissions” they’ve got over there.