Kulturelle Werteidentität als Erfolgsfaktor bei der Internalisierung von externen Effekten vor dem Hintergrund der historischen Entwicklung der institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen am Fallbeispiel des philippinischen Bergbaus seit dem 15. Jahrhundert

• Cultural value identity as a success factor in the internalisation of external effects against the background of the historical development of the institutional framework using the case study of Philippine mining since the 15th century

Gatzweiler, Birgit; Thomes, Paul (Thesis advisor); Lorz, Jens Oliver (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : RWTH Aachen University (2021, 2022)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2021

Abstract

In the Philippines, people were already mining in the pre-colonial period of the island nation. Today, mining is deeply rooted in the local culture, which is characterised by the fact that the common good has always been of central importance. The traditional small-scale mining conducted by the Kankana-ey and still in existence on Luzon today, is determined by manifold rites and taboos that ensure a sustainable use of natural resources. This inherent social mentality is particularly reflected in the distribution of the benefits from gold mining: Based on the collective ownership of the natural resources by the tribe, part of the mined ore serves as a kind of basic social security for all those members of a tribe who are themselves not actively involved in mining. Among them, elderly people - particularly elderly women - are prioritised by receiving a larger share for the purpose of their old-age provision. In general, resource extraction in the Philippines goes hand in hand with the expectation of the people in the local communities that it will provide direct benefits for them. This attitude can be traced back to the core traditional value of "Pakikisama", which entails Filipinos getting along well with others or being willing to share with others. There is a close affinity between the ideal of Pakikisama and the behavioural norms of traditional Kankana-ey mining as well as the Christian value of charity. This affinity has its roots in the fact that, as a result of the Christianisation of the archipelago by the Spanish from the middle of the 16th century onwards, Christian values gradually started to superimpose themselves upon the moral maxims of early tribal society without, however, eradicating them. Consequently, there is a canon of values today according to which the extraction of non-renewable resources is in extricably linked to the obligation of a raw materials company to assume social and ecological responsibility in the sense of sustainability. Conversely, the prestige of mining operators or their acceptance by the population is based on their compliance with social conventions. Against this background, long-term business success in the archipelago is decisively dependent on the cultural value conformity of a raw material producer. This is particularly evident in the comparison of the two raw materials companies Lafayette Mining Limited and Philex Mining Corporation (PMC). The mismanagement of the Australian mining company Lafayette Mining Limited, characterised by its disregard of such values, led to an insufficient internalisation of negative external effects and, subsequently, to the failure of the company in the Philippines after only a short time. In contrast, the value-oriented management orientation with an instrumentalisation of religion has been key to the success of the raw materials company Philex Mining Corporation - on which this dissertation focuses - since its foundation in 1955. Simultaneously, PMC's value identity acts as a driver of sustainable development in its mining environment. On the basis of its value-based culture of responsibility, the company sets new trends in sustainability on the one hand and exceeds existing legal standards on the other, making it an important incentiviser for policymakers and the economy. Its extremely successful sustainability concept, which is characterised by the compatibility of the economic interests of mining with the concerns of the natural environment on the one hand and with the needs of the local population on the other, even made PMC's Padcal mine a model example in the conception of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The latter made for the first time the creation of external benefits obligatory for large-scale mining. As a historically evolved set of rules, however, its provisions can only be understood through history. The principle of property law, according to which all mineral resources are state property, goes back to a papal decree from Pope Alexander VI at the end of the 15th century, which legitimised Spain - at that time an imperialist country - to subjugate and exploit previously undiscovered countries, with the condition that these be Christianised for reasons of power politics of the Apostolic See. On this basis, the Spanish crown seized the archipelago in the 16th century, driven by a greed for power and wealth, but without being able to build on its successes in South America. Appropriated by the Spanish conquest of the islands, property rights fell to the new colonial power, the USA, after the Spanish-American War and to the Philippine state after the islands' independence in 1946. With the exception of the privatisation of non-renewable resources under the colonial mining law of the USA, the property rights principle according to which all mineral resources are state property, is an integral part of the legislation. The Philippines, in the course of their independence, anchored a protectionist motivated quota regulation. This was a reaction to the colonial US-American mining law that disregarded external effects and was so itself a strong contrast to the earlier, Spanish mining law that had surprised with its welfare-theoretical contents. The protectionist motivated quota regulation of the Philippines limited the foreign capital share in favour of the Filipinos and formed the prelude to a raw materials policy that moved back and forth within the field of tension between the nationalisation of mineral resources on the one hand and their liberalisation on the other. Today, the liberal Philippine Mining Act of 1995 stands at the end point of these fluctuating developments. However, much of today's legislation on the internalisation of negative environmental mining effects dates back to the reign of Ferdinand Marcos, who made the Philippines a legislative pioneer in sustainability. However, since the 1970s, there has been a lack of consistent enforcement of the internalising legislation, so that only mine management based on Filipino-Christian values - as practised for decades by Philex Mining Corporation - is a guarantor of sustainability in mining in the archipelago.

Institutions

• International Economics Unit [814320]
• [814620]