THE SAGGITARIUS SYNDROME

by Bernie Lopez

 

When the CPP declared responsibility for the NPA attack on the mine site of Saggitarius Mining Inc. in Tampakan, South Cotabato, which destroyed a staggering P12 million worth of buildings and equipment, many began asking why.

 

This article is based on data reported by Romer Sarmiento for the Business World (Jan 31, Feb 1). There are reasons on both the high level, namely global, and the low level, namely community for the NPA attack.

On the global level, all we can say is that there is a tremendous global force present in Tampakan. Underneath Tampakan is the largest known copper-gold resource in Southeast Asia, 2.2 billion tons of ore, broken down into 12.8 million tons of copper and 15.2 million tons of gold. These are new estimates, up 10% from a previous one in April 2006.

 

Thus, the foreign giants are drooling over this sleepy town. Saggitarius represents two Australian mining giants as partners and majority equity holders, Xstrata Copper and Indophil Resources. Places super-rich in resources, like Iraq, are always the scene of wars, the grapple for the huge pie. In Nigeria, the oil multinationals spawned insurgency because it extracted all the oil but left the populace in utter destitution. In the same way, the core issue in Tampakan is multinationlism trampling not just on nationalism but also on communalism.

 

On the community level, the CPP declaration implies the NPA initiative has blessings from the top, that it is not an independent isolated move. On the community level, the proximity of the homes of marginals in a quiet remote upland area to the sudden presence of steel monsters run be high-tech high-salary personnel, is mind boggling. Indeed, there is a trend in our crowded mountains today that mining firms are now being intertwined with village communities. There is an inherent threat to their tiny marginal world. How would you feel if you suddenly saw a bulldozer in your backyard? It is like being struck by a lightning bolt. The first reflex is two fold. First is to cower in fear. The second is to see if the situation could solve the hunger problem.

 

Sagittarius personnel, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted giving 'token support' to the rebels. Further research revealed that the 'taxes' began right after an encounter between the NPA and government forces back in 2003. Sagittarius claims that this practice was began by the former management and that the new management refused to pay taxes. This may be one of the reasons for the NPA attack.

 

The core issue is how to split the huge copper-gold pie. In the NPA perspective, they have a right to what they consider as 'just compensation' from an alien firm in Filipino soil, extracting our riches at will. In the Saggitarius perspective, rebels have no such rights, although they may have given taxes only to dissipate potential violence.

 

The second alleged reason for the NPA attack is disgruntled B'laan natives who complained that they were not given permanent jobs as residents within the mine site itself, and that non-residents were given preferences. Sarmiento reports that the tribal chieftain receives P10,000 a month, and an additional P7,000 as chair of the Salnaong B'laan Foundation. The council also gets P25,000 a month. Such remunerations naturally spawn jealousy and envy, splintering tribal cohesion.

 

Saggitarius has appropriated P1.5 million a year as financial aid to each tribal council, which it said would be raised to P2.7 million. But Saggitarius admitted it is reluctant to pay cash for support for its project. The financial aid for the tribes and the taxes for the rebels are one and the same thing, the contribution of the alien firm to local 'development' or poverty alleviation, whichever you want to call it. The pie share of government is legal taxes.

 

Drooling over the potential windfall, any multinational is willing to pay these 'expenses' which are peanuts compared to the billions they will earn. The rebels and the tribes and the government want to get as much as they can, but admittedly, this is trickle-down economics, the crumbs at the bottom of the food chain. The purse holder is king.

 

The Sagittarius Syndrome is the core issue of equitable development, with the cases of Nigeria and Iraq echoing on the background. There are trends in the Sagittarius Syndrome we must address - mines fuelling insurgency, as in Nigeria; mines fuelling militarization, which in turn dislocates marginal communities on the pretext of insurgency. The pie is too big to ignore.

 

There are two large forces in contention - the vast marginals of upland communities with their tribes and the rebel groups at the bottom of the food chain, and the powerful multinational with their vast financial resources at the top of the food chain. The government is simply a fence sitter as long as it gets its share of the pie. In Tampakan, the situation is percolating into a head on collision of an immovable object with a irresistible force. In in all this, there is no longer economic development but war, carnage, and massacres.

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