361. IS THERE AN ETHICAL ISSUE?

Antonio Gabriel Maestrado La Viña (born October 2, 1959) is a Filipino lawyer, educator, and environmental policy
expert. A former Undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), he currently sits
as the Executive Director of Manila Observatory,

Critics said that what spilled first was not gray mud but some sense of responsibility.

 Moral contradiction
 The values and integrity, respect for the community, the environment, and the future of the people of
Marinduque.
 Was there neglect on the part of Marcopper management in the first place?

Fundamental design mistake – attributable to lower spending.

As time passed by, the dam was being filled with mine tailings. This brought pressure to the tunnel, causing
seepage of the mine waste. La Viña said Marcopper was aware of the leaks, and they had been trying to
figure out what to do with them.

Then, a minor earthquake happened. A week after, the tunnel was ruptured.

Marcopper blamed the earthquake for the damage, saying that the rupture was caused by an “act of nature.”
Despite glaring damages and reports of sickness, Marcopper claimed that the spills were non-toxic.

Criminal negligence – They found out that Marcopper were negligent. His team found the president and
the managers guilty of “criminal negligence.”

Nobody wanted it to happen but can we say that what went wrong was a question of responsibility?
Mining itself or extracting minerals from the womb of the earth in not unethical , and oil businesses and
mining industry are an important part of the economic whole.

 Why was there an oil spill and why were there toxic products in the river?

On March 24, 1996, the drainage tunnels of Marcopper Mining Corporation’s open pit ruptured and spilled
millions of tons of mine waste that smothered the Boac River in Marinduque, inundating villages and killing
marine life.

Neglect of corporate social responsibility can generate more harm to the already suffering residents of the
planet Earth and the already abused ecology. And that the damage is in fact irreparable.
WHAT WENT WRONG? WERE THERE REGULATORY VIOLATIONS?

Marcopper was found to have violated several conditions of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC). The
company had already been dumping mine tailings into bodies of water.

Despite this, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) renewed the company's mining permit,
on condition that Marcopper stops throwing mine tailings into the river.

To comply with the government’s requirement, Marcopper used one of their old open pit mines as their dam, where
they could keep all their mine tailings.

Prior to the disaster, mining companies had a good relationship with government.

“The government and the mining companies were always seen in solidarity with each other. They didn’t blame each
other. The government [usually] takes the fall,” La Viña explained.

This time, however, it was different as it was “the first time ever that the Philippine government had a different version
from the mining company,” he added.