Peza building ecozones for mineral processing

BAGUIO CITY—The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is putting up economic zones dedicated to the processing of extracted minerals to complement the operations of mines that are being threatened with closure by Acting Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, who had been bypassed by the Commission on Appointments.

These new mineral ecozones would help revive the national steel industry and draw investors interested in manufacturing home items, like hammers or spoons, which the country “still imports despite its rich mineral resources,” said Charito Plaza, Peza director general.

“While Lopez closes most of the mining companies [for harming the environment], Peza calls for the continuation of the mining industry,” Plaza said, provided the mines agree to put up factories that process raw minerals into finished products.

Peza is also urging Congress to pass a law banning the export of raw minerals, she said.

“I am submitting to Congress a draft measure that will [demand a] stop to the export of raw minerals. We should start exporting finished products, not unprocessed ore,” she said at a two-day Luzon ecozone summit here.

Similar measures have already been filed at the House of Representatives, among them a proposed Philippine Mineral Resource Act that seeks to reverse the current export-orientation of mining.

Instead, a mineral management plan should be developed and enforced by the government, allowing it to keep in reserve vital minerals it would need in the future once it has achieved industrialization, Plaza said.

“Making the country fully industrialized will need mining,” she said.

“We cannot industrialize without the minerals. A steel industry is the major component needed for the economy to advance toward industrialization,” she added. —VINCENT CABREZA