Apex Mining has downloaded at least P45-million as of October 2012 for the intended share of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in Compostela Valley (ComVal) in the income of the company’s mining venture in the area.
“But we are still determining how the funds will be best used for the benefit of the IPs,” National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) ComVal Provincial Officer Shirley B. Iguianon said. The NCIP is however faced by the challenge of determining the appropriate amount of money that should go to the IPs as their share considering that it is determined by the revenues declared by the mining companies to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The usual agreement is that the IPs get a 1% royalty share from the annual gross revenue of the mining company,” Paglilingkod Batas Pangkapatiran Foundation Executive Director Jose Melvin Lamanilao said. But the IPs have no means of validating if the royalty released by the company is in accordance with the income declared with the national government, he added.
This is where the Provincial Multi-Stakeholder Council for Extractive Industry Transparency and Accountability (EITA) in ComVal will play a big role, he said. The EITA, which was launched in Tagum City Monday, aims to make the declarations and remittances of the mining companies to the national treasury more transparent.
He said mining industries are usually also given auxiliary rights to timber, water and land but the revenues from these explorations are not declared. So when the mining companies and the IPs negotiate the royalty percentage, he added, it usually does not include the revenues from timber, water and land.
The point of the EITA is to help the IPs make a free and prior informed consent based on all relevant information declared by the mining companies such as their auxiliary rights and its effects on the royalty share, he said.
Under the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 7942, a royalty payment of not less than 1% of the gross output of the mining operations in the area shall be negotiated and should form part of the IP’s socio-economic Trust Fund.
“But the mining law just recommends that the royalty not be less than 1% so it could be 10 or 20 percent depending on the FPIC negotiations,” Lamanilao said. This is why we should really look into the contracts signed between the IPs and the mining company to ensure that their rights are protected, he added.(LAC)
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