Panning for gold in Baybayin,
Paracale, Camarines Norte, Philippines. – tektites.co.ukpic
By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
THERE is a growing enthusiasm
among professional Mambulaoans to develop a business enterprise called
cooperative for a few hundreds of small-scale gold mine workers in Mambulao.
The main goal is to help the
miners improve their lot by helping to increase their take-home cash at the end
of each day of hard work at the mines and at the same time instill among them
the value of cooperative work.
The idea of a gold miners’ co-op
suddenly surged into the minds of some professionals belonging to the Jose
Panganiban (National) High School Alumni Association, when Ronnie Habitan, a
small-scale gold miner in Mambulao who hit the big time, suddenly became the
subject of frenzied media attention not only because of his links with some
notorious personalities who were murdered at a police roadblock/check point in
Atimonan, Quezon, but also because of his wealth from gold mining operations.
Matt Ella Espana, former alumni
president said in an email circulated among their members that if there’s one
person who benefits from the wealth of Mambulao, which is gold, “would it not
be better if we do something to distribute this wealth equitably to a bigger
number of people who need this badly?”
Espana was referring to Habitan,
who is a well-known financier of gold operations in Mambulao and at the same
time the biggest gold buyer in town.
His rag-to-riches story is
well-known, especially among the local gold mine workers who continue to wish
that they hit the high-grade (gold) as Habitan did in the past.
But there’s only one Ronnie
Habitan and plenty of Mambulaoans who continue to break their back eight hours
a day under the blistering sun scouring for gold.
At the end of the day’s hard
work, their share of one or two “bahay” (stress on ‘hay’) of gold would be
bought by the gold buyer in town for a sum that makes gold mining a lucrative
endeavor.
In April 2012, a “bahay” whose
weight is equivalent to 14 grains of palay was selling between P800 and P900
(Batobalani, Paracale buying price).
The take-home cash after a day’s
work is the biggest incentive why many farmers in Mambulao have abandoned their
farms for gold mining under gold operator-financiers like Habitan.
How to break into the
closely-guarded circle of gold operations in Mambulao and convince the workers
to join a co-op like the one being considered by both the JP(N)HSAA and LaPIMa,
short for Laking PIM Ako, remains a big question.
Coconut farmers formed co-ops to sell their harvest at wholesale prices direct to final buyers, thus eliminating the middlemen.
For one, under the cooperatives
system of doing business, especially if it involves production, such as farm
produce -- from onion and garlic to palay, from tobacco to cotton, and from
banana to coconut and the like – the farmers and landowners have to be members.
All the produce is turned over to
the cooperative, which, in turn, looks for the right market at the right price
for the farmer-members.
From the individual farmer’s
sales, the co-op earns a commission, an amount which is easily affordable to the
farmers, to fund its operations.
In return, the farmer/co-op
members enjoy farm extension help, training, education and access to cheaper
farm inputs and farm services.
In the Mambulao gold mining
scheme, the gold field is owned by a mining rights claimant, who, it turns out,
does not have funds to operate his mining claim as a small-scale mining concern
using various small but sophisticated equipment and labor.
So, he farms it out to the
so-called gold financiers – in the likes of Ronnie Habitan – who assemble their
group to mine a portion of the claim in the form of butas (translationi:
tunnel) where thousands of pesos are sunk to meet the cost of extracting the
yellow metal from the bowels of the earth.
From the gold extracted from this butas, the financiers pay royalties to the mining rights claimant.
At the same time, he pays the
gold workers according to their day’s production in the form of gold in
“bahay”.
Since the proposed gold miners’
co-op will engage in gold-buying – targeting the daily output of the workers –
it is directly competing with the gold financiers.
Could this proposed co-op
convince the gold workers to join the scheme and sold their daily gold output
to the cooperative exclusively, on pain of being sacked by the gold operator-owners
of the “butas”?
Question No. 2: Since it will be
directly competing with the town gold buyers for gold, the co-op has to pay
extra for every “bahay” a gold worker, or “magkakabod”, brings to its counter
-- as incentive.
What if the traditional gold
buyers jack up their buying price for a few pesos more above the co-op’s buying
price just to get the gold, would the co-op do the same just to get the
business?
These are the most obvious issues
on the economic side of the gold trading the proposed LaPIMa-JP(N)HSAA co-op
has to sort out.
It would be foolhardy for the
proponents not to dissect this issue and thus, miss the right way to sort out
the built-in obstacles.
Per se, a cooperative enterprise
has always worked for farmers, fishermen, miners, consumers and
employees-workers. This is because its concept has been refined along the way
to deal with the issues confronted by every target sector.
But a gold miners’ co-op is a
different animal.
A cooperative scheme targeting
gold workers who work for individual operator-financiers with profits and
nothing but profits as their main motive for being is facing a hard grind.
As far as these wealth-hungry
operators are concerned, the co-op would take away their gold – but over their
dead bodies.
Somehow, there’s a pin light that
could be expected at the end of this gold tunnel:
Once Mambulao is declared a
“Minahang bayan” district by the government, all idle mining claims in Mambulao
– the source of gold for operators and financiers these days – would be
scrapped once and for all.
The “Minahang Bayan”, which would
be confined to one specific area, would now be directly under the Bureau of
Mines with the local government unit (in this case the Mambulao municipal
government) getting some supervisory
roles to ensure that the gold mine is developed (or exploited) under the strict
guidelines set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
This will ensure that the
destruction of the environment through reckless excavations and tunneling for
the yellow metal is prevented.
And since the operations are
confined to one area, a systematic and effective control of mining waste
disposal would be achieved, thus water tributaries, rivers and the Mambulao Bay
are spared from further harm.
New small-scale mining permits
would be issued to qualified individuals who would now be working on their own,
just like the way the traditional “magkakabod” operate. No more bosses to deal
with.
Under this scenario, recruiting
them to join a gold miners’ cooperative seem workable.
In short, hurdling all barriers
strewn across the local gold mining industry, the proposed cooperative is the
way to go for its workers.
It would also be a big plus for
the local economy.
For comments, email the writer:
ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
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