In a two-page decision, the SC's Second Division noted that petitioners Celestial Nickel Mining Exploration Corporation and Blue Ridge Mineral Corporation failed to raise new arguments to warrant reconsideration of its December 19, 2007 decision, which denied the mining firms’ petition seeking the cancellation of Macroasia’s mining contracts, including the two Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA), granted by former Environment and Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael Defensor in favor of Macroasia in 2005.

The SC also dismissed the respective claims of Celestial and BMC for preferential right over Macroasia’s mining claims due to the failure of the latter to fulfill its work obligations stipulated in the contracts.

“Acting on the separate motions for reconsideration of Blue Ridge Mineral Corp. and Celestial Nickel Mining Corp. the Court further resolves to deny the motions for reconsideration with finality, the basic issues raised therein having been duly considered and passed upon by the Court in the aforesaid decision and no substantial argument having been adduced to warrant the reconsideration sought,” the SC stressed.

In its petition filed before the SC, Celestial and Blueridge argued that the Mines and Adjudication Board (MAB) erred when it overturned the decision of the Panel of Arbitrators (POA) of the Bureau of Mines finding Macroasia and another mining firm Lebach not only automatically abandoned their areas but likewise had lost their rights to the mining claims.

The POA granted the petition of Celestial to cancel the seven mining lease contracts of Macroasia and gave the said mining firm the preferential right to the mining areas formerly operated by the Tan company.

The POA also upheld Blueridge petition but only against the mining lease contract areas of Lebach. It gave Blueridge priority right to the Lebach’s mining claims.

Blueridge appealed POA’s decision to the MAB insisting that it has preferential right not only to the mining claims of Lebach but of Macroasia as well.

Macroasia countered by saying that it did not abandon its mining claims, and even if mining was not listed among its purposes in its amended Articles of Incorporation, it was nevertheless ratified as a secondary purpose by its stockholders in subsequent amendments of its Articles of Incorporation.

Macroasia, likewise, questioned the jurisdiction of the POA in canceling its contracts saying that the power and authority to grant, cancel and revoke mineral agreements is exclusively lodged with the DENR secretary.

The Court of Appeals (CA) 12th Division, in a decision dated April 15, 2005, declared Macroasia’s seven mining contracts as subsisting and rejected Blueridge’s claim for preferential right over said mining claims.

It also upheld the exclusive authority of the DENR to approve, cancel and revoke mineral agreements.

Celestial’s motion for reconsideration was denied by the CA, prompting it to elevate the case before the SC.

On the other hand, the CA 10th Division in a resolution issued on May 18, 2006, granted Blueridge’s petition and reinstated the Oct. 24, 2000 decision of the MAB. It cancelled Macroasia’s lease contracts and granted Blueridge prior and preferential rights.

Macroasia then elevated the case before the SC questioning the decision of the CA’s 10th Division.

However, Blueridge discovered that in December 2005, two MPSAs signed by the DENR secretary had been issued in favor of Macroasia. It subsequently filed a petition before the SC seeking to invalidate the two MPSAs issued to Macroasia.

The SC decided to consolidate all the four cases as they arose from the same facts.

In its ruling, the SC affirmed the decision of the CA’s 12th Division declaring that only the DENR secretary can revoke or cancel mineral agreements under Republic Act 7942 (Philippine Mining Act of 1995).

“Since the POA and MAB have no jurisdiction over the petition for cancellation of existing mining lease contracts to Macroasia, they could not have made any binding pronouncement that Macroasia had indeed abandoned the subject mining claims,” the SC said.

“Besides, it is the DENR secretary who has the authority to cancel Macroasia’s existing mining lease contracts whether on grounds of abandonment or any valid grounds for cancellation,” the SC added.

Likewise, the Court affirmed the validity of the DENR’s grant of two MPSAs to Macroasia in 2005 saying that Blueridge’s claim that it has been accorded preferential right “has no leg to stand” considering its nullification of the ruling of the CA’s 10th Division.

Social Markers

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> If Jun Lozada is as evil as those that hound him, then, at this point in time, during this inquiry, he comes off a martyr, nay a hero compared to those who dismiss him as a heretic.

> The PNP or the PSPO follows the chain of command closely that they don't know where or whom will give the order, and trusts the driver more than the usual common sense.

> Valeroso's got his 15 minute shot at fame.

> Jamby is a s pompous brat.

> Enrile is a pompous old man. Feels like he's the only one with better things to do.

> Estradas have no business asking questions.

> Joker has used up his usefulness. He has become what he despised the most.

> You can get past Customs. Really.

> If the La Salle Brothers would find ME seeking sanctuary, instead of Jun Lozada, who is obviously far wealthier than what they wanted us to believe, they'd probably slam the door shut and wait for the pizza.

> Security at the airport is a pushover.

> With the onslaught of technology, our surveillance and security measures are a bit outdated.More like 1991.

> Mike keeps Php 50K lying around in his car, or in his glove compartment, just in case.

> Atienza speaks so well. It sounded like he was auditioning for a new episodeof "Maynila".

and more to say, but the rest was pure comedy. I even visualized Jamby getting goosebumps at the mention of "DURA". . . . hee-hee!

> Nobody felt the need to cross reference all these stuff to those statements, if any, by ZTE bigwigs. Sheesh. Common sense is absolutely absent.

For your listening pleasure, download or livestream the audio at Internet Archives >> Lozada WithThe Clowns

It seems to me that an abortion is not something that a pregnant woman does happily. An abortion has never been a cause for celebration; it cannot even be approached indifferently except perhaps by the most monstrously inhuman of women. Rather, an abortion is something done in despair after great consideration. In this country in choosing to have an abortion, a woman must not only mortify her every human instinct, but must risk injury or death in illegal and dangerous procedures. This is clearly not something one wants to do, but rather something one feels forced to do because not having an abortion is so much worse.

The circumstances surrounding a woman that might incline her towards an abortion are largely out of her control. Probably she is poor, lives in a violent neighborhood, possibly she herself is an alcoholic or a drug abuser; any attempt on her part to improve her life could be permanently derailed by an unwanted child. A child that is forced to grow up in such a neighborhood is also far more likely to become assimilated into it than to break out of it. If the woman has made a calculated decision that both she and the child are better off if she has an abortion, as cold and as hard as it seems, we are forced to agree.

Certainly it was her choice—in as much as freedom can be attributed to the actions of anyone in an oppressive, intoxicated environment—to engage in sex. Of course choosing to have sex is not the same as choosing to have a baby, she may have used a condom, for example, but while rare condom failure has been known to happen. However much we may say that she is responsible for her actions, it is cruel to have the rest of her life and a child’s defined by a single mistake.

Nevertheless that mistake would likely not have lead to an abortion in a society in which an abortion would not have been absolutely necessary. We all bear the guilt for every abortion performed, for every child murdered, for every woman who has been forced to terminate her baby. To simply illegalize abortions without eliminating the circumstances that give rise to them foists our own social guilt on a single individual who is least capable of doing anything about it, it arrogantly assumes that we who are complicit in our nations atrocious poverty have the right to force anyone one to rear a child in the filth that we have let accumulate, as if we who view it from so great a distance can really say that life is more sacred than a GOOD life.

There is only a single alternative: adoption. But that alternative is not as simple as it seems: if the woman does not have food enough to nourish her child, does not have income enough to stop working for the period in which her pregnancy makes work impossible, if she is an addict or an alcoholic, how can we demand that she carry the child to term?

Finally, abortion does not effect population growth, but allowing women who have made mistakes to have their children at a later date, it drastically reduces the number of single mothers, improves the likelihood that the children born will have a family that is capable of providing some form of care for it, and therefore changes which segments of the population see growth. Instead of the population growing in precisely those demographics that make improvement so difficult, abortion increases the likelihood that the population sees growth in areas that have a chance at being productive and useful.

If this prospect seems cold to you, if it seems like we are sacrificing babies to a future society that we cannot even be certain of: well that is exactly right. It is murder and a crime, but the society that we live in even now is also a crime. If this monstrous thesis of mine, that we owe it to our women and our nation to legalize abortion, seems wicked all I can tell you is that the alternative is worse. If it seems that people like Lito Atienza and Pro-life Philippines have the moral high ground with their absolutist cant about how every life is sacred, nonsense about chastity as if even their maniacal God had ever damned anyone for a single mistake, as if it is possible to love a fetus while doing nothing for the person that fetus will become, to protect the unborn while stealing from the living, to dictate morality to the poor while enjoying their obscene wealth, well it seems that way because their perspective is facile dogma.

There is a tremendous sin here, but unfortunately it is not the woman’s—not if she is only doing what she must. Until abortion is not a necessity for any woman, we have no right to the moral ascendancy to illegalize it—each and every one of us is complicit in that necessity, and there is the true crime.

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BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya--Local officials and tribal leaders in an upland town here on Wednesday revealed to visiting Environment Secretary Lito Atienza the alleged bribery and deception committed by workers of an Australian company trying to explore their lands.

In a dialogue with Atienza, Kasibu Mayor Romeo Tayaban and six village chiefs disclosed how officials and employees of Oxiana Philippines, Inc. supposedly connived to push the firm’s exploration project in Pao and Kakidugen villages.

“Their common strategy is to call the people to a banquet at the village center, then let them sign an attendance sheet. We later found out that these were used as supporting documents as proof of of the people’s support for the mining project,” he said.

Geologists from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) have been entering Kasibu without giving the courtesy to local officials, Tayaban said.

“There were those who came to my office saying they were getting water samples from our rivers for a geologic study. But we were shocked later that they were actually looking for ore-rich sites,” he said.

Village chief Mariano Maddela of Pao said Royalco has allegedly been using a relative as conduit and offer him P180,000 in exchange for his support to the project.

“I just wish that the company stops all these foolishness and go home because as long as I am the village chief, [the company] can never enter our barangay,” he said in the dialect.

Pao occupies the proposed 5,873-hectare exploration site granted to Oxiana, now known as Royalco Resources Limited.

Asked to comment on the allegations, Joey Nelson Ayson, Royalco country manager, said: “That is not true.” He did not elaborate.

Royalco’s permit, issued in 2000 to Oxiana, was extended in July by MGB this year amid allegations that the extension was illegal because the maximum two-year period has already expired.

Tribal leaders blamed the lure of money offered by Royalco to some members of the Bugkalot tribe for creating envy and distrust among their people.

Documents from the National Commission on Indigenous People stated that the company has agreed to pay as much as P4,000 to 14 members of the Bugkalot tribe while 19 others were to get P3,000 a month, both as the firm’s "liaison officers”.

“The company is taking advantage because to our people, P4,000 is already a big amount, so they agreed,” said Lucas Buay, chair of the Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response for Ecological Development, a people’s organization.

Felimon Blanco, village chief of Paquet, said non-Bugkalot tribes were angered by their exclusion from the “sham” consultation process conducted by the NCIP.

He expressed concern that the peace covenant entered into by Bugkalot natives and migrant tribes there, through a blood compact their forefathers did in 1950s, would be annulled if conflicts start to arise among tribes due to the mining controversy.

Tayaban lamented that the mining issue has caused divisiveness among his people, who used to live peacefully despite belonging to various indigenous groups.

“We are now a divided town. Members of the same family, tribe or even neighbors are fighting because they are either pro- or anti-mining,” Tayaban said.

In his response, Atienza said he will order an investigation into the allegations of the tribal leaders.

“If you are saying you were not consulted, I will tell the company to include you in the consultation process. If it’s true that the process was not followed, I will personally make sure that it will be followed this time,” he told the tribal leaders.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya--The campaign against large-scale mining intensified here after the provincial board on Wednesday moved to oust two foreign companies that tried to operate gold-copper mining projects in two upland towns.

In a resolution, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stop the exploration activities of MTL Philippines Inc., a British company, following its rejection by residents in Runruno village in Quezon town.

Also on Wednesday, Board Member Edgardo Balgos denounced in a privilege speech the "terrorism" being committed by OceanaGold Philippines Inc. (Ogpi) in its attempt to start its gold-copper project in the village of Didipio in Kasibu town.

In issuing the resolution, the board gave credence to a petition by farmers' groups opposing the project, fearing a repeat of the 2006 tragedy that killed 13 people and rendered families homeless as mudslides buried houses and farmlands in the village.

"Most of the petitioners who are dependent on agriculture as their primary source of income are alarmed and troubled that their farmlands will be buried in mud, rocks, sand and gravel as what happened during the onslaught of Typhoon 'Paeng,'" the board said.

It cited the findings of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) that declared the vulnerability of the area to flashfloods and mudslides, which may be worsened by ongoing mining activities.

"The provincial planning and development office [also] expounded on the potential social and environmental effects of mining in the province wherein mining claims encroach on settlement and [ancestral domain claim] areas, critical watersheds, protected lands and hazardous areas," the board said.

Lawyer Nena Santos, MTL counsel, declined to comment on the board resolution. Santos, however, referred the writer to a resolution of the Quezon town council that supposedly denounced the provincial board resolution.

In July, Governor Luisa Cuaresma asked former Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes not to renew MTL's expired exploration permit, and instead asked the national government's help to rehabilitate the area.

Reyes, however, renewed the permit before he was transferred to the Department of Energy.

'Deceived'

In his speech, Balgos accused Ogpi of violating the six conditions set by the board when it issued its endorsement of the project in 2005. These included road development in the area and jobs for locals.

Because of the unfulfilled conditions, Balgos said: "My message to OceanaGold is this: Leave Didipio. Leave Nueva Vizcaya."

The company, he said, has promised the board several times that they will improve the roads leading to Didipio.

“But what did they do? They improved the road from the Quirino side,” Balgos, chair of the SP committee on legal affairs, said.

Because of this, according to Balgos, Didipio residents would now rather buy their basic commodities and other needs from markets in Quirino, instead of those in Nueva Vizcaya.

This is because travelling using the newly-improved Quirino route is now easier, faster and cheaper, he said.

The promise of jobs was likewise not fulfilled, Balgos said, because OGPI has been importing miners from Benguet, supposedly because locals lacked the skills.

“How can they say that our people are unskilled when many of them had small mining as their source of livelihood for generations?” the official said.

Balgos also called for an investigation into the alleged illegal entry of OGPI into the nearby village of Papaya, where the company has been starting to conduct exploration without obtaining the consent of local communities.

Ramoncito Gozar, Ogpi vice president for communications and external affairs, on Thursday asked to be given time to respond to Balgos' statement.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines -- A unified call from local officials, church leaders and residents to reject three mining projects in the province greeted the visit here of Environment Secretary Lito Atienza on Wednesday.

Catholic Bishop Ramon Villena, along with tribal folk from upland Kasibu town, asked Atienza to revoke the permit issued to Oxiana Philippines, Inc., an Australian firm, to explore an ore-rich area in Pao village.

Small miners also disclosed the alleged deceit and manipulation allegedly resorted to by workers of OceanaGold Philippines, Inc., also an Australian company, to convince landowners in Didipio in Kasibu to sell their lands to the company.

Provincial board members presented to Atienza a copy of their resolution asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stop the exploration activities of British firm MTL Philippines, Inc. in Runruno village in Quezon town.

Atienza was here to dialogue with Villena and tribal leaders from eight upland villages in Kasibu, who have led their people in setting up and maintaining a road blockade since July 2 to prevent the entry of Oxiana, now known as Royalco Resources, Ltd.

He also separately met with local officials and Department of Environment and Natural Resources personnel.

During the dialogue, Atienza admitted he was "overwhelmed by the deluge of complaints and statements rejecting large-scale mining projects here."

He, however, made a pitch for mining, saying "our country was bestowed with natural resources that must be used for its own development."

He urged the tribal leaders to look at the "overall picture, and to consider the ways to help uplift the conditions of the greater number of people."

"Not all countries have these minerals. China may be a big country, but it does not have as rich resources as the Philippines. We are poor, but it's because we have mismanaged our government, we have mismanaged our resources," he said.

Atienza cited the experiences of Arab countries, as well as New Zealand and Australia, which supposedly became progressive because of the "wise use" of their natural resources.

He said, however, the tribal leaders raised valid issues that the DENR must look into, including the selective consultation among landowners and the supposed defective conduct of the free, prior and informed consent for projects in areas occupied by tribal groups.

But Villena rebuffed Atienza's statement that likened the country's mining resources to those of oil-rich Middle East nations.

"(Let's) look at Iraq right now. They may have all the oil, but there is no peace there, there's always violence. So where's the development?" he said.

Villena, whose diocese covers Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, said he was "deeply hurt" that the entry of foreign mining projects has divided the people in upland communities, most of them belong to tribes.

"The most expensive social cost of mining is when families are wrecked. Development is good, but it must not only be done for profit, but for the center of development which is human dignity and human life," he said.

The bishop was led to tears as he recalled how a number of those in the barricade, including women and children, were hurt after Royalco workers dragged them away from the road.

"If one life will be sacrificed because of mining, then this will be the greatest tragedy in Nueva Vizcaya. You cannot take any life for the sake of a foreign investor," he said.

Citing allegations of corruption among DENR personnel, Villena assailed officials who, he said, were bribed by the company to get their mining permit and be allowed to push through with their mining activities.

Note: I am revoking the first part of this article to preclude others from using it against me and my family. I regret what I have written, and to some people who have printed copies of my original article-- you don't have my authorization and/or sanction whatsoever to use it anymore for whatsover purpose. To do so would give me right of action against those who attempt to expropriate and/or use it for their personal whims and caprices. This should serve as a warning...

"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” -- Ayn Rand

Who are the people who stand at the other side of this philosophy? To me they are the second-handers, the opposite of self-determinists. I'm not talking about people who used to buy second-hand items like my mother. I'm talking about those who do not put value, or do not even know the value, of their free will. To them, free will is inexistent. They believe that there's no such thing as free will.

I stated in my previous article titled “Philippine Second-handers” that a second-hander is one who is dependent, as a parasite is, on the service of people, on the dictates of others, on the gullibility of the public, on the propaganda and opinions of the media. He is without ego, without a concept of self, although he may appear to have an overwhelming ego, but in truth he has none. He may get rich and powerful, but in reality, he has nothing, he is nothing.

I concluded in that article that we have a lot of their kind in the country especially during election time. Election period is the epoch wherein the second-handers show their face shamelessly.

It is the period wherein these bunch of blood-sucking shenanigans have the opportunity to scramble to power.

The worst second-hander is the man, or woman, who craves for power. Who does everything, and who employs all tricks, magics, goons, and guns just to get hold of the power all second-handers dream of. Can we categorize them? Yes, and they are the following:

1. Political second-handers

2. Corporate second-handers

3. Military second-handers

4. The hybrid

The first classification speaks only of those in the political sector, the second, of those in the business world, including journalists, and third, of those in the military. The last is the worst – the Hybrid- who has the capacity, opportunity and access to cross the three aforementioned layers. They are deft at combining politics and business for their personal, political or business advantage.

Others call them clever, “madiskarte”, and wise, but I call them incompetent, dependent, boneless maniacs, and shameless manipulator. They form a very dangerous societal force which causes the gradual dissolution of the moral fibers of society. Their continued stay poses real threat to the fundamentals of man. Their ideologies, which are irrational and based only on their collective desire to maintain their position and clout, seek to stay the status quo by poisoning the minds of their offspring and of the people. With this kind of system, the next generation is in limbo and the direction of this country is not up but down.

Their thinking and ways, which form part of our dominant political and social system, cause both moral and spiritual decadence.

So who are the country's worst sickos?

Top of them all is none other than the one giving marching orders in Malacañang. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, although revered by some young people as clever and “madiskarte”, is the one who tops my list, at least during this political epoch. Her actions and decisions made me think that she's the worst second-hander in these parts.

Rocked by corruption and election-cheating accusations, the President tenaciously clang on to power by using the sweeping scope of her executive power, which even exceeded the limits allowed by the constitution at the expense of the civil liberties of the people and the natural progress of this country. Psychopath is the term we used to call a person who is incapable of determining right from wrong, and of feeling any concern for the people.

Mrs. Arroyo has a very different understanding about some political and social tremors that took place in the country. At the height of Hello Garci controversy that nearly edged her out of power, she declared war on insurgency, which resulted in the loss of lives, hopes and future of those not only involved in the war, but innocent civilians as well. Amidst the uncontrollable public protests that resulted from the vote-rigging issue, she gave the police the power to employ “calibrated preemptive response” against the protesters, gagged her officials from speaking in any inquiry by issuing E.O. 464, and put the country under state of emergency through P.D. 1017.

Her different or indifferent interpretation of recent historical events that challenged her regime pushed her to the limits at the expense of people's inalienable rights. Summing up her justifications in coming up with these questionable edicts and executive actions, which were later on chided and nullified by the Supreme Court, there's only this one word that comes to mind: Democracy. She argued, in summation, that she made all those actions in the name of democracy.

But why did the people not applaud her for her heroic escapades? The people asked her to step down instead. A person who has so much care for and concern about the protection of our democratic rights deserves a monument or a mausoleum for all the world and next thousand generations to see. The Filipino people should have thanked Gloria for issuing these edicts and even supported her ambition to change or rock the charter. But I saw no merrymaking in the streets, or people who should be shouting “Long live the Queen!” What I saw were clenched fists and angry faces of people who were determined to oust their leader. What I heard were staccato of contemptuous voices crying justice for the country and justice for the victims of enforced disappearances and human rights abuses.

What's wrong with our country? What is wrong with it is that it has a leader who is in total denial, who can be categorized as a psychopath. I wonder if she ever thought that the very reason why the people took to the streets was because they no longer wanted her to stay in power. Not even a minute longer. But in her mind, the President could have thought that what the people need was democracy, that's why she issued her fascistic edicts. Democracy, ah! I hate to hear the word especially when it came from the lips of GMA.

Deft appointments also kept and is keeping her tight grip on power. An insecure leader has to pick only those who are willing to kiss her ass. She only appointed the incompetent, the corrupt (or at least people with dirty track record), the dishonest, the coward, and even the mentally incapacitated.

She named Benjamin Abalos, who doesn't even know how to count, as the chair of Comelec; Raul Gonzales, who caused much shame for the country, as secretary of Justice; Angelo Reyes, who doesn't even have any knowledge about energy, as secretary of energy; Lito Atienza, who cut down trees in a Manila park, as secretary of natural resources, among stupid others. All of them are second-handers...

... including the following:

• FG Mike Arroyo (no need to explain)

• Abalos (I think he's even worse than Gloria, and a friend of mine told me that the man deserves to be executed by firing squad)

• All members of the first family, except Luli, maybe, including their uncle Iggie.

• All GMA cabinet members, for they followed orders without thinking and for thinking that their loyalty only belongs to GMA and not to the people

• Fidel V. Ramos

• HS Jose De Venecia

• 95 percent of the members of the Senate, especially Enrile

• 90 percent of the members of the House of Representatives, most especially the allies of Arroyo

• former military Gen. Garcia

• PLUS, some spineless members of the NATIONAL (IM)PRESS CLUB

To be polished later... I'm kinda sleepy...

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