Palace: Forum bares need for more consultations on mining

MANILA, Philippines—Seeing emotions running high between mining executives on one side and environment and indigenous peoples on another during Friday’s mining forum gave Malacañang more reason to hold more consultations with the various interested parties.

The Aquino administration failed to come up with an executive order detailing its mining policies as originally expected in February.

“We saw (on Friday) that passions were running very high and it showed us how complicated the issues related to mining are,” Abigail Valte, one of President Benigno Aquino’s spokespersons, said over the state-run radio station dzRB.

“So seeing that the matter generated heightened emotions—many stakeholders are weighing in, many interests involved, many points of view—the government has to take all those into consideration and come up with a policy that is fair to all,” she added.

Valte said the administration saw in the forum the views of those “for and against mining, those who are in the middle, the businessmen and the environmentalists.”

“That’s why we have to go back and continue consultations with various stakeholders,” Valte said.

The Aquino administration, in reviewing the country’s mining policy, also wants the government to get its “fair share” of the revenues generated from the highly lucrative business.

“The goal of President Aquino is to make doing business in the Philippines more efficient, easier for businessmen in particular those that are not as familiar as local businessmen,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a news briefing in Malacañang on Thursday.

Purisima said the mining industry was one of the areas that can accelerate the country’s economic growth.

“Unfortunately in the past, the way the laws were implemented, it was not a true win-win situation where the government actually was not able to get its fair share from mining activities,” Purisima said.

The finance secretary said the total collection from the mining industry amounted to just a little over P2 billion while the country’s total revenue was over P1.2-trillion.

“So when you look at that and, at the same time, the impact to the communities that host it and the environment adjacent to it, you really have to ask yourself whether the way we’re implementing it is what we describe as a responsible way of harnessing the wealth of the country,” Purisima said.

“We are looking at various models, alternatives, in the hope that this can be done so that all the interests of the different sectors are addressed,” he added.

Purisimas  remarks came after the bureaucracy failed to meet the deadline the pPresident had said for enunciation of his government’s mining policy.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr., in explaining the delay, said more discussions with stakeholders were needed to hammer out a policy that takes into consideration “the interests of all those affected by the mining industry especially the communities directly affected by mining operations.”

“We are aware that there is much concern regarding government policies currently being studied to address the various mining issues in the country,” Ochoa said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The new mining policies will be issued after we obtain the necessary input from the sectors involved and after a thorough and exhaustive assessment of the impact of these directives,” he added.