BROTHERS' VOW TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY

Spartan Village

By Wilhelmina S Orozco

What is brotherhood? It is friendship between and among men. It is helping each and everyone attain that equal stature so that they may live and co-exist in a peaceful, prosperous and happy state.

This was the kind of brotherhood that existed between Manong Ernie and his younger brother Louie Ramos. Manong Ernie was an internationally-known political figure among the Pangasinenses and the Filipino-Americans in the United States by now most known as the Democratic Party of the Philippines' candidate during the last presidential elections in 2010. Louie who steered the DPP in Manong Ernie’s absence, is his brother who dutifully looked after his personal campaign.

Their brotherhood however was not only political but economic as well. Manong Ernie was able to inspire Louie to constantly think of politics only as a tool to improve the economic well-being of the Filipino people. So today, even in the absence of Manong Ernie who has gone ahead of all of us to heaven, Louie is involved in a great economic undertaking that is benefitting and will benefit thousands more of the “poorest of the poor” through the Spartan Mining and Development Company. The company is executing Project Magneto that gives the poor a livelihood which is the “best of the best,” plus free housing now being constructed in Zambales.

What is the Spartan Mining and Development Company? We all have our negative notions of any mining company because we view it as a destroyer of the environment.

I myself had seen how the mountains up north, in the Cordilleras were ravaged by gold mining companies making a fast buck from the gold and other mineral resources; yet our peoples continue to suffer until today from the lack of the very basic necessities for existence. Flying in to Baguio City way back in the 70's, the plane that I took passed by the excavation made by the gold mining company. I saw vast tracts of brown land without any greenery. What was left after the extraction of gold was nothing more but brown soil, the companies not even having that compunction to plant trees over it, at least to make it habitable again.

Times have changed however, as now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has among its goals and objectives the following statement: “to foster a sustainable and responsible minerals industry guided by (the) best and state of the art safety, health, environmental and social management practices.” How much of that is imbibed and implemented by mining corporations, however, should be left to our imagination and the dutiful research endeavors of non-government environmentalists, individual and organizational.

Established in 2011, the Spartan Mining Company, headed by Louie, and with its operations concentrated in San Marcelino, Zambales Province, west of the Luzon Island, takes this statement seriously. Louie says that the economic well-being of its workers and most of all of the Aeta people, is at the heart of its operations.

What exactly do the workers do to earn? They carry a piece of magnet then just scoop up the magnetites and place them in a bag. Even in half a day, the workers could already earn so much just by doing that and selling them by the kilo to the Spartan company.

Actually, it was Manong Ernie who inspired Louie to undertake this commercial venture. Unfortunately he died of lung cancer in 2010, three months after the end of the Philippine elections, yet still possessing that dream of changing the directions of the lives of the Filipino people till the end. His memory lingered in the mind of his brother so strongly that Louie has dedicated the company’s success to him.

Where is San Marcelino, Zambales? It lies at the foot of Mount Pinatubo which as we all know, more than 20 years ago, in 1991 to be exact, exploded billions of lahar containing various minerals in Zambales, Pampanga and Tarlac, three provinces in Luzon. The lahar covered thousands of homes and lands, rendering the latter infertile, truly unfit for vegetation. Churches got submerged and vast hectares of ricelands were destroyed disemploying a lot of farm workers and impoverishing many farmer-owners.

Why did Mt. Pinatubo explode despite the fact that it was almost considered extinct as its last activity was more than 600 years ago during the Spanish era? An Aeta tribal chieftain, who possessed intuitive knowledge and natural sensitivity to the rumblings of nature, had warned the people already before it exploded. He had known that there were a group of mining developers who wanted to explore the areas around Mt. Pinatubo for its mineral contents. He had seen them drilling into the very depths of the mountain in 1991. Hence he said to his people then:

“They should not do that. Those large iron rods would wake up the mountain from its sleep. They are like thieves, stealing the wealth of someone in the middle of the night. One day, the mountain will wake up and it will wake up angry.”

True enough, Mt. Pinatubo spewed lahar affecting not only the Philippines but also the whole world continuously for days. Its mouth exploded lahar not only on land but also on air as high up as 10,000 feet above. MetroManila suffered from white smoke that covered garden lots and entered homes. My own place had its share of gray lahar covering the streets of the subdivision right here in Quezon City. Then we read about international airplanes having had to be diverted from their regular paths due to the smokey atmosphere. As far as Latin America, the fumes traveled, making even the roosters crow as they must have thought that the covered skies meant that it was dawn again.

The Aeta people were the most bitter victims because they and their ancestors had lived up there in Mt. Pinatubo for centuries. They felt it unjust that they should be made to suffer for the misdeeds of other people.

Though that happened more than 20 years ago, the people are still traumatized and cannot find peace in the environment. The scenes of lahar wreaking havoc on lands and making them desert-like because of the angry volcano continue to haunt them. Mental and emotional traumas are indeed very hard to overcome especially when they occur with physical displacement.

But with more socially-conscious companies like the Spartan Mining lauded by even environmentalists for their plans that take into consideration the welfare of the people and of the land, the people have a lot to look forward to.

Those who have lived around Mt. Pinatubo like the Aetas, and those coming mostly from Smokey Mountain wanting to better their lives are assured of a future that will benefit them on a daily basis and insure the future of their children as well. Smokey Mountain scavengers have come to the place to work, their take home pay at present reaching a minimum of P300 and a maximum of P1,000 per day depending on the number of kilos of magnetites that they could sell to the company. Payment is immediately given them.

This is so unlike in the scavenging areas in Tondo, where they had had to work from early mornings up to evenings just to be able to catch the trucks that would unload the wastes from the different parts of metroManila and for which their daily intake from these materials sometimes would reach only a hundred pesos. Not only that, their health continually suffered due to the unhygienic situation they were in.

In Zambales, their lives are turning for the best. The Spartan village, a resettlement area, designed as green by an international builder and architect is now rising, a model in urban development to be located at Barangay Ravanes in San Marcelino just at the foot of Mount Pinatubo. The area covered is 110 hectares, with 3000 houses to be built for free. The houses will stand each on a lot of 200 square meters and then will be distributed per family. The village people will have many facilities complete with a chapel, the San Raphael Chapel now existing, and a commercial building for their marketing needs. they will also enjoy promenading at the park, going to a country club with a swimming pool and a market. Their children will not have to go far to get education as schools shall also be built in the area.

Project Magneto has a permit to mine 12 billions of cubic inches of magma containing iron for 25 years, and renewable; thus the people are assured of the best life ever. The natural resource can last not just for one but for several lifetimes.

Louie many years back had wanted to do something with lahar, so that it would flow to the seas instead of on land. Unfortunately, the officials in charge of Mt Pinatubo environmental rehabilitation then were not receptive to his ideas. Fast forward to the new millennium: what was a misfortune then, is now like manna from heaven, not only to his company but also to the thousands of workers who are and would be benefiting from the natural resources, according to him.

The memory of Manong Ernie as the idealist-pragmatic brother, ex-priest and political activist is indeed highly inspiring for Louie to prod the people to be forward-looking like him. He has realized his and Manong Ernie's vow to alleviate poverty with Project Magneto. Beyond that, Louie carries on the political torch of Manong Ernie as the moving and leading force behind the DPP, also recognized as the Democratic Party of and for the Poor so that it can create a dent in the national consciousness and be a force to reckon with come election time.

(Pictures are plans of housing for the Spartan Village supplied by Louie Ramos)