Here is a juicy insight into the roots of the “war on mining”.
Once again from Mr. Duterte’s keynote address at the Philippines-China Trade and Investment Forum (Philstar October 21)
You know, I have yet to hear Americans going to my office for the 23 years that I’ve been mayor,expressing good intentions and about going to business that would help the food and everything. They go there not really for the basics, importation of fruits and everything just what China is doing.
But they go for the mining and all of these things that are really very detrimental to your country. And that is why I am leaving Gina Lopez on her own because there are really minings owned by the Americans or in consortium with Americans and Filipinos who are wreaking havoc on our planet earth.
To condense as deductive logic: Americans didn’t consort with or genuflect on Mr. Duterte, hence they are evil. Since Americans (who are evil) are into domestic mining, thus, mining is evil!
One just can’t help but observe of the multitude of egregious fallacies (ad hominem, reduction ad absurdum, poisoning the well, red herring, composition and etc…) engaged here by the leadership to condemn Americans, which unfortunately, eventually spilled over into the hapless mining industry.
Nota Bene: This is NOT to defend the Americans, but to reveal the source of the war on mines.
To repeat the quote: “they go for the mining and all of these things that are really very detrimental to your country… I am leaving Gina Lopez on her own because there are really minings owned by the Americans or in consortium with Americans and Filipinos who are wreaking havoc on our planet earth”
So by Mr. Duterte’s logic, it has not been that mining is inherently evil or “detrimental” to the country. Instead, since the Americans are evil, and since they are engaged in mining, hence mining by Americans must be stopped.
The crux of which, mining is a RACE or NATIONALITY issue.
So THE environment has served as nothing more than a ploy to EXPEL Americans out of the industry. We can, therefore, deduce that the war on mining has NOT been about the protection of the environment, but about Mr. Duterte’s VITRIOL or HOSTILITY against AMERICANS. In short, it is about the compulsive obsessive politics of REPRISAL.
The audience for this speech matters. Remember, Mr. Duterte presented this argument as part of his plea for investments from Mainland CHINESE investors and politicians!
Yesterday, I talked about China’s FDIs.
And if you noticed the quotes from Mr. Mark Esposito and Mr. Terence Tse and from the legal industry’s Ms.Catherine Elkemann and Prof. Oliver C. Ruppel, China’s FDIs have initially been concentrated on the extractive industry, or the mining industry.
China’s FDI has flowed into in Africa with mining as key recipient whether in 2009* or 2013**
*World Economic Forum What China’s economic shift means for Africa March 11, 2016
**World Resources Institute Where Are Chinese Investments in Africa Headed? May 15, 2014
It’s not just in Africa. Mining has played a significant role in China’s Outbound M&A investment globally. As explained by the KPMG (China Outlook 2015 p.11):
As China shifts the emphasis of its economic growth model from ‘quantity growth’ to ‘quality development’, Chinese companies are investing in ‘new’ sectors beyond resource extraction. These sectors include high technology, agriculture and food, real estate, and services. Of the top 10 outbound merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, there was only one large mining deal in 2014, while five years ago in 2010, there were six oil and gas deals and one mining deal.
Despite the reduction of ‘quantity growth’ to ‘quality development’, mining and oil remain one of the top investments for the Chinese.
While the mainstream reads or interprets the shift in investment as mainly trend change to quality, this may partly be the case but there may be more to it.
In my humble opinion, the collapse in commodity prices has signified as the PRINCIPAL reason for why Chinese investments in mining and oil have diminished. Because there has been less demand for commodities, given China’s present economic conditions, investments declined too. But down does not entail zero. And Chinese investors appear to be positioning for the future.
Back to the Philippines.
Prior to the controversial speech, Mr. Duterte’s seeming hatchet (wo)man against the Americans in the field of mining, Ms. Gina Lopez declared, the other week, that new mining activities will be stopped.
From Reuters/Interaksyon/MSN (Gina Lopez wants to ban new mines as clampdown deepens, October 15)
Environment Secretary Regina Lopez wants to prolong a ban on new mines and will review all environmental permits previously granted to the minerals industry, ramping up a campaign to clamp down on damage from the sector.
Miners criticized the proposals made on Friday by Lopez, saying she seemed determined to put the "industry to sleep."
The Philippines is the world's top nickel ore supplier and an environmental audit that has halted a quarter of its 41 mines, and the risk that 20 more maybe shuttered, has spurred a rally in global nickel prices.
"I want to put a moratorium on any new mining," Lopez told a media briefing.
However, part of the $24 billion bonanzas brought home by Mr. Duterte from China includes mining investments!
From Bloomberg: (China Visit Helps Duterte Reap Funding Deals Worth $24 Billion October 21, 2016)
China will provide $9 billion in soft loans, including a $3 billion credit line with the Bank of China, while economic deals including investments would yield $15 billion, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told reporters in Beijing on Friday. Preliminary agreements in railways, ports, energy and mining worth $11.2 billion were signed between Philippine and Chinese firms.
So Ms. Lopez would have to revise or requalify her claims to perhaps: “The prolonged ban on new mines will be imposed STRICTLY to non-mainland Chinese investors.”
But for mainland Chinese investors…wink, wink, wink…it IS party time!!!
Or, Ms. Lopez would have to say goodbye to her (fleeting) post.
Sorry.
Like FVR, Ms. Lopez appears to have been used as convenient tools for the ochlocratic dictatorship propaganda agenda.
Again, from Mr. Duterte’s perspective, the politics of mining has hardly been about the environment, but about anti-Americanism.
So this means that to get their projects back on stream, domestic mining should or must invite mainland Chinese investors as partners!
The cat is out of the bag!
The war on mining has ended!
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