MGB’s Lucero gives TVIRD a positive rating on environment and social standards
the mining industry in the region she oversees, but also in addressing the concerns
of the citizenry. The challenge gets more daunting as she is also tasked, on
one hand, to prove to stakeholder communities that mining is an important component
of development that will help boost the country’s ailing economy and,
on the other, to ensure that mining companies consult local communities effectively
on operations-related activities that affect community life.
Such is the challenging situation that Jessica Nazareth-Lucero
finds herself in as she fulfills her duties as Director of the Mines and Geosciences
Bureau (MGB) for Region IX, which consists of the mineral-rich provinces of
Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, and the chartered
city of Zamboanga. But she manages to do well, thanks to a win-win approach
that comes in handy in such a difficult trade.
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Above,
Mines and Geosciences Bureau Region IX Director Jessica Lucero (front row, fourth from left) with her staff during the Earth Day 2008 parade last April. Below, Lucero (in checkered blouse) confers with officials of the Zamboanga del Norte Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) in her office. This mother of three is a strong-willed and determined woman with an immovable resolve to advance the interest of mining-affected communities. |
“Continuous dialogue and consultation with stakeholders,
especially when new projects are to be implemented or changes are to be made
is a necessity,” Lucero advises mining companies. “I also encourage
the forging of sustained and healthy relationships with partners, such as the
MGB.”
Soft-spoken and approachable, Lucero’s demeanor and delicate
façade should not be perceived as signs of weakness. On the contrary,
the 45 year-old mother of three is, as her staffers profess, a strong-willed
and determined woman with an immovable resolve to advance the interest of mining-affected
communities. A great role model for women in the Zamboanga Peninsula –
or anywhere. She does her job fully aware that while the earth should be tapped
to provide the needs of civilization, particularly in the abatement of poverty
and hunger, it should also be protected so that future generations will still
be able to benefit from it.
Lucero’s team appears to have found a healthy development-environment
equilibrium in Canatuan, a remote mountain village in Siocon, Zamboanga del
Norte where TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) operates a copper-zinc
mine. Just recently, the MGB conferred TVIRD with a “satisfactory”
rating for complying with the standards set by the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR), the mother agency of MGB, as well as by other
government regulatory bodies involved in the monitoring and evaluation of the
company’s previous gold-silver operations, which it decommissioned last
April.
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Above,
Lucero affixes her signature onto a Manifesto for the Protection of the Environment during the Philippine Environment Month last June. Below, Lucero (with flag) leads the Region IX MGB delegation during the parade. She is great role model for women in the Zamboanga Peninsula – or anywhere. |
She also acknowledges that TVIRD has helped boost Siocon’s
economy, a fact earlier recognized by town Mayor Ceasar Soriano and the members
of the Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT), composed of members from different
sectors of this municipality and of the province.
“It is evident that there is a positive change in the
economy of the town as it is now bustling with economic activities (aided by)
the well maintained Siocon-Canatuan road, the boom of the construction industry,
and the sprouting of commercial establishments,” she said.
Lydia Dandana, Canatuan resident, recounts that before TVIRD
began operations in mid-2004, the Siocon-Zamboanga City route was serviced only
by small ferry boats and a few habals-habal (Visayan for motorcycles) that traveled
to the city by crossing forested areas in Texas, a district in neighboring Sirawai
town. “Makahadlok ang biyahe kay lasang ang again (The trip was frightening
because we had to pass through thick forests),” she said
Since then, the company has also maintained the provincial
road that connects Canatuan to R.T. Lim in adjacent Zamboanga Sibugay province.
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Above,
Lucero gives a lecture on her Bureau’s thrusts within the Zamboanga Peninsula. Below, she presides over a meeting with officers of the Zamboanga Sibugay PMRB. “I encourage the forging of sustained and healthy relationships with partners, such as the MGB,” she says. |
Lucero is also pleased that TVIRD has established a harmonious
relationship with its host Subanon indigenous people (IPs) in Canatuan. This
strong bond, she says, has made things easier for the company’s operations.
She, however, encourages further strengthening of ties between TVIRD and its
host and impact communities through continuous dialogue and consultations.
Lucero also expressed satisfaction over TVIRD’s implementation
of its First 5-Year Social Development and Management Plan (SDMP) for residents
within and around Canatuan, the cost of which was more than 1% of the direct
mining and milling cost as required by the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The
company spent a total of P19 million for the SDMP, and paid royalties to the
IPs amounting to a total of nearly P34 million.
Thess Limpin, TVIRD Manager for Community Relations and Development
Office (CReDO) says that the SDMP programs and projects that the company has
implemented for Canatuan and other impact barangays are products of consultations
with residents.
“We were able to develop the SDMP after a series of consultations
with our stakeholders because we do not want to impose our ideas on them,”
she relates. “Even in the implementation of projects we always encouraged
people’s participation, particularly through our ‘counterparting
scheme’ where the community shared in the cost of the project by providing
the labor.”
Lucero says other mining companies in Region IX are facing
an “uphill battle to be able to operate”. And the only way for them
to be able to do so, she stresses, is to do it responsibly. She will make sure
they toe the line. (Lullie Micabalo)