The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) has urged the government to intervene directly in the apparent contradiction between provincial ordinances and national law on the mining industry, as this had done nothing but seriously damaged investor confidence in the country.
The chamber has asked, in particular, that the government resolve the impasse over a South Cotabato provincial ordinance banning open pit mining, which the government has already acknowledged to be contrary to national policy.
The COMP said this ordinance, which has been in place since mid-2010, served no one’s interest but those of people who oppose human and economic development in the Philippines. A similar ordinance was passed in Zamboanga del Norte last year.
Destructive bans
“These destructive bans have seriously damaged investor confidence and impacted both foreign and domestic investments into the Philippines—investments that should play a major role in the government’s agenda for poverty alleviation,” the chamber noted.
“Through the current mining policy review process, in this timely review, government has talked of the need to ‘harmonize’ provincial ordinances with national law, but the Chamber of Mines believes such language is soft and aspirational rather than directive,” the group said.
“We ask the Philippine government to seize the moment by delivering a firm and decisive statement to align provincial ordinances—existing and in the future—with national law, as well as by allowing mining firms to pay directly to the local government units (LGUs) their rightful share in mining revenues,” it added.
The chamber also appealed to the Aquino administration to correct a decision made by Environment Secretary Ramon Paje who, it said, “inexplicably and in an unprecedented manner denied the granting of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for the world-class Tampakan Copper and Gold Project in southern Mindanao.”
Contradiction
It noted that the environment department’s position contradicted that of other top officials, like Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, that the ban cannot supersede a national law, the Mining Act of 1995, “which only spells out responsible mining and does not ban any mining process such as open pit mining, a method used and accepted worldwide”.
The Tampakan project, with an expected investment of almost $6 billion, is the single largest foreign investment in the country’s history, the chamber said.
The project is managed by the global mining company Xstrata which the chamber said was one of the world’s most recognized large-scale mining house when it comes to responsible mining.
However, Tampakan has up to this time has not been able to set a timetable for the project which is expected to begin commercial production by 2016, because the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has failed to set a deadline for reconsideration of the ECC approval.
“We fear that more investments will be lost such as what happened with the world’s biggest mining firms BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo-American, and Newmont, all of which tried to invest in the Philippines but left disheartened because of the perceived lack of business environment stability in our country,” the chamber said.
Moratorium
Amid the escalating debate on the pros and cons of mining in the country, the Ateneo de Manila University yesterday called for a moratorium on new mining projects of up to a year pending the issuance of more stringent regulations to promote sustainable mining.
In a memorandum sent to the university community Thursday, Ateneo president Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin explained the university’s stand on the debate, which is that responsible mining is still possible given better state regulation and industry transparency.
Echoing an earlier position issued by the Ateneo School of Government, Villarin said no new mining projects should be allowed until the establishment of better guidelines relating to economic, environmental and cultural concerns surrounding mining.