THE Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (Chomp) members are responsible and are ready and willing to prove it to the group that wants mining totally out of the country.
The Chamber’s members have adhered to their four-point policy which would show that they are indeed responsible, Rocky G. Dimaculangan, Chomp vice president for communications, told media practitioners after the conference on mining held at the University of Southeastern
Philippines.
Dimaculangan volunteered to invite Fr. Joel Tabora, Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) advocacy committee national chair, to join the group on a visit to mining projects under “responsible” companies.
“We are inviting him (Tabora) to visit one of the responsible mining companies. This is an open invitation,” he said. “This is in response to the charge made by Fr . Tabora, president of the Ateneo de Davao University, that there is no responsible mining activity in the country.”
Tabora’s group had earlier held an international mining conference at the AdDU, to which representatives from the mining group were not invited. Media practitioners who were not in the list of invited were also barred from entering the Finster Hall, venue of the two-day conference.
Regional Director Constancio A. Paye Jr. of Mines and Geosciences Bureau for Region 12 said that before 1995, mining activities in the Philippines were governed by Presidential Decree 463 which did not have provisions for social equity and environmental protection.
The previous law, he pointed out, was only to ensure economic growth and not protect the environment and that “social equity and environmental protection” provisions in the 1995 Mining Act ensured that mining companies would practice responsible mining.
“The (mining malpractices) were sins of the past, we (mining industry) are today haunted by the sins of the past,” he said, adding that the government is making sure that mining companies adhere to the law so that they would not be accused of committing similar malpractices.
Dimaculangan’s colleague, lawyer Ronald S. Recidoro, vice president for legal and policy, said he could vouch that members of the association are following responsible mining standards.
Recidoro said that last year, mining companies which are members of the chamber spent a total of P6.1 billion to protect the environment.
The association took up th cudgels for local government units who ask that mining taxes they are entitled to be first directly remitted to them instead of being remitted to the national treasury.
This was also among the issues brought up by local government units in the region, particularly by Governors Arturo T. Uy of Compostela Valley and Corazon N. Malanyaon of Davao Oriental, two of the main mining areas in the region.
Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad had earlier said that the issue was among those being considered to be part of the national government policy which is still under review by the Office of the President.
A provision of the Local Government Code of 1991 states that local government units should get 40% of the mining revenues. Of the 40-percent share for LGUs, 20 percent goes to the provincial government, 45 percent to the city or municipal government and the remainder to the barangay government.
The association also criticized Mr. Tabora’s group for holding an international mining conference which did not welcome miners. “This is ironic,” Dimaculangan said.
In refusing participation of the so-called mining industry supporters, Mr. Tabora said what his association was doing was an exercise of its “academic freedom.”
The association invited international experts on the mining industry, including Clive Montgomery Wicks, a conservation and development consultant specilizing on the impact of extractive industries, who earlier claimed that the Tampakan mining project of the Sagittarius Mines Inc. in Tampakan, South Cotabato as among the world’s most dangerous mining projects. [AMA]
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