Umweltverbrechen multinationaler Konzerne - Greenpeace

Range of damage,
amount of loss
season; and,
� Concentrations of trace metals in the mine tailings were not
sufficiently high to represent an immediate toxicological
threat.
In 1998, a study 219 estimated the damage from the disaster at PHP
162 million or EUR 3.5 million under the "with long-term
rehabilitation" scenario and PHP 180 million or EUR 3.9 under the
"with short-term rehabilitation" scenario as the value of the estimated
total damages amounted to over a 10-year period, in terms of direct
use values of the river and coastal waters affected by the tailings
spill.
Foregone income in 1996 is estimated at PHP 50.1 million or EUR
1.2 million in, which was slightly more than 50% of the total provincial
income of PHP 95.0 million or EUR 2.1 million, and was more than
two times the total municipal income of Boac of PHP 21 million or
EUR 465,000 in 1996.
N.B. The estimated damage costs in the study is regarded by some
local groups to be on the conservative side.
Who is responsible The case has all the elements for a classical recipe for disaster: a
resource-rich but impoverished community, a corporation with the
right connections and a bureaucracy that is incapable or hesitant to
implement the law 220 .
Legal and/or public
action taken
The Marcopper-Placer Dome Mine Disaster was in the making since
1975. At that time, the Marcos government gave blanket authority for
the mine to dump its tailings into Calancan Bay with very little
environmental safeguards. This is perhaps mainly due to the fact that
Marcos’ cronies owned 49% of the mines then. The succeeding
administrations fell into the same predicament.
Dr. Delfin Ganapin, Underscretary for Environment and Research of
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources claims that
the corporation withheld vital information regarding the Tapian
drainage tunnel. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the
Environment Department likewise did not mention the existence of
the tunnel. Yet long-time residents claim that they had been aware of
the existence of the said tunnel for almost 20 years. Even after the
spill in August 1995, the Bureau did not make a report of the
“engineering failure” that caused the spillage for the mine waste into
the river in March 1966.
Legal and public actions on the case are all geared at getting Placer
Dome-Marcopper to clean up the river and compensate the affected
communities for actual damages to their livelihood.
219 Bennagen, Ma. Eugenia, Estimation of the environmental damages from mining pollution:The Marinduque Island mining
accident. EEPASEA Research Report Series 1, 1-46
www.twnside.org.sg/title/toxic-ch.html
220 Tauli-Corpuz, Victoria,The Marcopper Toxic Mine Disaster-Philippines biggest industrial accident.
www.twnside.org.sg/title/toxic-ch.html
112