ABSTRACT
Mining companies can provide opportunities to enhance the social infrastructure of local communities, but once mines are abandoned, corporate accountability to sustainable development is often neglected. Sipalay is a copper deposit in the southern region of Negros Island, Philippines. Interest in the copper deposits came as early as the 1930s but mining operations did not materialize until the 1950s. Residents who lived to witness the glory days of the mines would recall how “wealthy” their community was. Household income, as some Sipalaynons would claim, more than met their daily needs. The economic activities skyrocketed as the mining operations required more workers to answer the demand for expansion. As a result, the municipality was promoted to city status due to increasing populations and income generated from the mine. The mine provided electric and water services to the barangay; a term used to refer to the smallest administrative division in the Philippines. A school, named after the owner of the mines, was established and scholarships were offered to many. Infrastructure projects, funded by the mining company, were also developed to aid the local government units and nearby community. From a CSR standpoint, the Marinduque Mining and Industrial Corporation (MMIC), later Maricalum Mining Corporation (MMC), is lauded for its provision of social services and infrastructure to local barangays. However, throughout five decades of operation, the municipality has significantly suffered from the damages of numerous mining disasters. These disasters heavily impacted the livelihoods of farmers, yet MMIC/MMC failed to provide just compensation packages. Although the school continued to provide accessible education to the community, electric and water services were cut off when the mines closed, demonstrating that the gains derived from the mining operations were short-lived and unsustainable. It left the municipality with an abandoned mine site that brought about danger to the community, millions in unpaid taxes, and hundreds of unemployed and retrenched workers who remain uncompensated to this day. This chapter discusses the case of the MMIC/MMC operations in Southern Negros, highlighting the mine achievements and failures through the narratives of local interviews. This chapter aims to explore the main issues within MMIC/MMC’s abandoned mine sites and failed CSR efforts.
