costs and benefits

One of the things I learned at the School of Economics is the importance of knowing the costs and the benefits of an action, policy, or plan. The Philippine Mining Act will open up our country to foreign investment, giving us much needed capital to boost our economy and raise us from our fiscal crisis. It will also allow us to utilize our country's vast store of mineral resources, which would otherwise remain buried underground idle and useless.

However, this influx of investments has a cost. The Philippine Mining Act will open up our mineral resources to foreign exploitation. Whatever foreign firms dig up will be sent to their countries, not to ours. Sure, they will invest in our country, but the mineral wealth of our country is worth more in the long run than the short-term gains the government expects to reap from foreign investment. The PMA is also unconstitutional in the sense that it allows non-Filipino companies to exploit our resources. To attract foreign investment, the PMA resorts to the provision of incentives for foreign companies like tax holidays and other investment incentives which would allow foreigners to take so much from as at so little a cost. The PMA will not only affect our economy, it will also affect our environment and cultural heritage. Indigenous Filipinos will be marginalized by the encroachment of mining operations on their land. Mountainsides will be devastated, rivers polluted, and forests cut down because the PMA allows mining firms to utilize whatever resources they need from the area surrounding their operations.

It is obvious that the costs far outweigh the benefits. Short-term profit will cause long-term destruction of our environment. Short-term investment will allow foreigners to cart off our mineral wealth. The Philippine Mining Act can best be described as leaving the door of your house unlocked and even leaving a note telling robbers to take what they want.
Do we want a government that would sell us out for a few scraps from Uncle Sam's table?
Do we want a future for our children where our environment has been devastated and pillaged by those who seek personal profit over national progress?
I don't.
What do you think?