Ateneo seeks dialogue with mining industry

The Ateneo de Manila University is seeking a dialogue with the country’s mining industry in hopes of improving its mining-related research and clearing the air amid the differences over the effects of mining on the environment.

Fr. Jose Villarin, the Ateneo president, extended the invitation to a dialogue after the Chamber of Mines, in an advertisement published yesterday, attacked as “a farce” the Ateneo’s “The Future of Mining in the Philippines” conference which was held Tuesday.

“Instead of attacking the school and the conference, we ask them to come to the table and sit down with us to tell us where ASoG (Ateneo School of Government) did not get it right and how to improve our research,” said Villarin in a statement.

The Chamber of Mines has criticized ASoG for what the business group said was its anti-mining bias.

In an advertisement in newspapers Tuesday, the chamber said ASoG had largely excluded the mining industry from its conference.

“The ASoG conference on ‘The Future of Mining in the Philippines’ is a farce. We will not allow ourselves to be drawn into a forum disguised as an academic conference,” it said in the ad.

The mining group said “none from the industry were invited as presenters” in the conference and that its members, while asked to serve as reactors, were given little time to review the “voluminous” papers.

“How can a conference on ‘The Future of the Mining Industry’… take place without the participation of the industry? This certainly runs counter to ASoG’s claim that it is a school that ‘makes possible a learning process that bridges the gap between classroom wisdom and real-world policy decision-making and governance,’” the group said.

Villarin said the chamber “misunderstood the nature of the academic conference” and, contrary to the group’s claim, those who were chosen to make the presentations “do not have a reputation [of being antimining] or a record on mining.”

“I reject the accusation that all the presenters are known to be antimining… In fact, they were chosen precisely because of their ability to be objective and independent,” said the Ateneo president.