The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) plans to offer mining firms, including Canadian companies, private armies to protect their exploration interests in the Southeast Asian nation.
Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr.  said the Philippines Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ricardo David Jr. has ordered the new commander of the AFP Western Command (Wescom), Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban to look into the possibility of having such an arrangement with the many international companies operating off the island of Palawan.
The southern Philippines, some mining experts say, represents the largest unexploited stores of copper and gold in Southeast Asia.
But many mining projects have run into communist insurgency, environmentally-minded militants,Muslim rebels  and tribal loyalties underscoring the high risks to foreign investors into the Philippines’ underdeveloped, yet politically tumultuous, mining sector.
Mabanta noted the presence of international companies involved in oil exploration off Palawan and that the possibility of a tie-up on how to come up with a better security system other than using the AFP’s organic resources and equipment.
But Mabanta said the proposal has yet to be formalized and what had been done so far were exploratory talks, according to reports in the Philippines.
Mining in Palawan has already ravaged forests, generated flooding and caused the siltation of rivers and farmland. It has also destroyed sacred sites of the Palawan Tribe in Philippines say anti-mining activists.
The military proposal has come under fire from the region’s militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) which said the move would be grossly irresponsible and would further “institutionalize the mercenary, reactionary and anti-people character of the present military hierarchy and rank-and-file.”
“The AFP proposal is like enlisting the personnel of military bureaucracy as paid agents and wholesale private goons of oil exploration giants currently extracting the country’s oil resources in the name of super monopoly profits. It is like enrolling and enlisting the generals and the ordinary members of the AFP to the payrolls of these oil giants,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.
“Let us set the record straight. Since the escalation of offshore mining that started in 2005, the AFP has been providing security support and personnel to large-scale oil and gas hunt groups in the country, as if they are enlisted in the payroll of these destructive giants,” Hicap said.
The group said the military had been on on-call and on aggressive mode everytime big oil exploration groups like the Japan Petroleum Exploration Corp. Ltd. (Japex) and Forum Exploration Canada (Forum) in charge of oil hunt in Tañon Strait asked for their support like security services and assistance again protest actions from local communities.
Pamalakaya noted that the AFP is also on call everytime NorAsia of Australia asked for their security assistance against protest from fishing communities. The Australian offshore group is mining the 445,000 hectare Cebu-Bohol Strait separating the island provinces of Cebu and Bohol.
The Philippines DoE has confirmed that over 20 firms had eyed energy exploration contracts in the country, specifically in nine areas offered by DoE for petroleum exploration, with an aggregate total of 71,357.3 square kilometers in Cagayan province, in Mindoro-Cuyo area, east Palawan, the Visayan basin, and the Agusan-Davao area in Mindanao.
One of the major flashpoints in Palawan is the plan to hunt for the treasure trove of untapped minerals lying underneath Mt Mantalingahan.
Palawan accounts for bulk of the country’s reserves of nickel ore, valued at 300 billion U.S. dollars, official data show. But cashing on this is easier said than done, because it would involve compromising large areas of old- growth forests and the ecological benefits derived from them, reported the news agency, IPS.
Mantalingahan’s importance as the home to a number of short-range endemic species, including the soft-furred mountain rat, which had not been seen in decades, and critically endangered species like the Palawan peacock pheasant and the Palawan cockatoo, has also been noted by the Alliance for Zero Extinction, an initiative of 52 multinational biodiversity organisations.
One group, the Palawan Youth Force, has embarked on a signature campaign on the social networking site Facebook to convince the Philippines’ new president, Benigno Aquino III, to prevent new mining activity in Palawan province.
A lawyers’ organisation, the Environmental Legal Assistance Centre, has hauled to court most provincial officials for endorsing a mining project in the Narra municipality, in alleged violation of a special national law protecting Palawan’s remaining old-growth forests.