(The Philippine Star) | Updated February 13, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines –
Foreign investors were not spared from the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) order to close 23 mining firms and suspend five
others.
Francis Chua,
International Chamber of Commerce Philippines chairman, said he has been
receiving a lot of calls and messages from investors and the group’s
headquarter officials in Paris to ask him what is going on in the country’s
mining industry.
“I also received a call
from the US, there’s a group that wants to invest at least $1 billion in the
Philippines. Their question is ‘Are we protected?’
“We have seen that
there are so many companies, the miners from different countries investing
millions and millions of dollars, and yet overnight, the government has asked
them to stop operations,” Chua said.
The US-based firm, he
added, is into real estate and tourism projects and has made large investments
in China and other parts of the world.
“They are concerned of
what happened. It seems like the government will just close down any investment
without due process, without hearing a day in court? They feel it’s a very
risky situation,” Chua said, adding that he continues to assure the
international business community that it remains “business as usual” in the
Philippines.
Environment Secretary
Regina Lopez announced on Feb. 2 the closure of 23 mining firms and suspension
of five others, bringing shockwaves to mining stakeholders and investors.
“Responsible mining is
very important to our economic development. Our concern is not who is right or
wrong, but clarity, transparency and due process,” said George Barcelon,
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president.
“We thought this is a
very worrisome trend, if not a very irresponsible move from the DENR. From PSE
standpoint, we are used to where processes and benchmarks are followed,” said
Hans Sicat, Philippine Stock Exchange president and chief executive officer.
Malacañang earlier said
the mining companies would be given an opportunity to respond to the mining
audit, on which the DENR based its closure and suspension orders.
Hot issue
Presidential
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said there were heated discussions on
the DENR order during last week’s Cabinet meeting that it nearly bumped off
other topics in the agenda.
“Because the
discussions were so heated, a member of the Cabinet suggested that the issue be
discussed separately in a cluster meeting with the Department of Finance and
DENR,” Andanar said in an interview with radio dzRB, adding that Finance
Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Lopez have already issued a joint resolution on
the matter.
The finance department
claimed that the DENR orders would cost affected local governments in 10
provinces over P650 million yearly in foregone revenues. Those to be
affected are Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya, Palawan, Cebu, Bulacan, Zambales, Eastern
Samar, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.
Malacañang assured the
affected mining companies that they would be given the opportunity to answer or
even dispute the findings of the DENR audit.
President Duterte has
the final say on the closure of the mining firms.
Last week, the Mining
Industry Coordinating Council, a Cabinet oversight body, announced that it
would form a multi-stakeholder review of mining operations in the country.
Those found guilty of
violating mining contracts, laws and regulations, after observance of due
process, would be meted the appropriate penalty under relevant laws, the
council said in a resolution issued Thursday.
Rehabilitate
Rep. Rodel Batocabe of
party-list Ako Bicol proposed that the 23 closed mining sites be rehabilitated
as these could not just be left at their current state without doing some
restoration efforts.
He also called for a
“stringent audit” of the Mine Rehabilitation Fund to ensure its transparent and
accountable use, noting that, “no proper government audit is in place to
safeguard the fund from corruption and unbridled utilization.”
“There is still a
loophole in the Philippine Mining Act because the Commission on Audit does not
have the function to police the use of these funds for the technical and
biological rehabilitation of the affected areas,” Batocabe said.
Mining companies are
required under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 to set aside 10 percent of the
Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program cost or P5 million, whichever
is lower, to be used for rehabilitation.
The MRF committee –
comprised of the Mines and Geosciences Board regional director, DENR regional
executive director, local government unit representatives, non-governmental
organizations and the contractors – manages the fund.
But Batocabe observed
that the nature of the MRF remains unclear, thus “inhibiting the government to
carry out a state audit.”
He cited the case of
Rapu-Rapu Minerals, the first approved operation under the new mining act,
which appeared to have used P80 million of the MRF “for maintenance and
consultancy fees without the actual rehabilitation.”
The lawmaker said the
case prompted him to ask that the MRF be classified as a public fund.
If his move is
approved, the MRF would be subjected to the scrutiny of the Commission on
Audit.
Meanwhile, some mining
engineering students fear that their future employment is jeopardized by the
DENR order.
In a statement, the
University of the Philippines Mining Engineering Society (UP Miners) said the
order implies the unemployment of new graduates in the field of mining
engineering, geology and metallurgical engineering, among others.
“The action by the DENR
has instigated issues of employment panic and dilemma to future engineers and
scientists of the industry, aside from the questionable mining audit itself. It
defeats the purpose of studying the technicalities and philosophies of the
field when the industry itself is without a defined standard acceptable to the
government,” the group said.
UP Miners joined the
call for transparency and full disclosure of the DENR mining audit results.
“For as long as the
transparency of the mining audit remains inaccessible, we shall keep invoking
our right to access detailed information regarding the audit for us to know
what needs to be improved and to aid in the advancement of the profession
towards environmental protection,” the group said.
They also questioned
how an audit done by Lopez’s team was eventually preferred over an audit
conducted based on international standards.
“Even mine sites with
an international ISO-14001 certification that was acquired after over a year of
audit and which the Secretary initially deemed sufficient to demonstrate a
company’s high standards have not passed the audit done by Lopez’s team that
consisted mostly of non-experts, including anti-mining representatives,” UP
Miners claimed.
The Chamber of Mines of
the Philippines said Lopez “is slowly killing an industry that has paid
billions in taxes and fees annually.”
It added that the
industry paid P10.1 billion in tax revenues in 2015 and that the mining
operations that were ordered closed down or suspended account for 46 percent of
the revenues. – With Alexis Romero, Louise Maureen Simeon,
Delon Porcalla
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