business mirror
WEDNESDAY, 09 FEBRUARY 2011 19:45 MANUEL T. CAYON / REPORTER
DAVAO CITY—The globally accepted guidelines in conflict-sensitive corporate and industrial operations were adopted by the Mindanao association of power companies and distribution cooperatives when it agreed on Monday with the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) to practise good company and social operations to avoid further igniting social and political conflicts in the South.
The Mindanao Electric Power Alliance (Mepa), the association of power generation, transmission and distribution companies in southern Philippines, entered into a memorandum of agreement with MinBC, which adopted in 2007 the advocacy embodied by the red-flag principle of International Alert.
The red-flag guideline on “Liability Risks for Companies Operating in the Philippines” contained admonitions against corporate operations that “expel people from their communities,” “forcing people to work,” “handling questionable assets,” “making illicit payments,” “engaging abusive security forces,” “allowing use of company assets for abuses and other crimes,” trading goods in violation of international sanctions,” “providing the means to kill,” and “financing local and international crimes.”
Vicente Lao, MinBC president, told reporters that the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) at the Marco Polo Hotel here would indicate the willingness of the members of the Mepa to adhere to socially-acceptable operations of the company.
“That while business and power companies are on a collective effort to address the problem of power shortage, these red-flag principles would also serve as the venue to discuss on how not to add to the conflict in Mindanao with their operations,” Lao said.
He said that companies “should look at the guidelines not as restrictions but as measures of how to do socially-accepted practices because conflicts arise when people are deprived of their opportunity to pursue their livelihood,” he said. “The MinBC believed that companies can do well by doing good.”
Rolando Torres, MinBC executive director, said the MOA with the Mepa may be considered yet a “motherhood the MOA, to allow the MinBC to go around and convince the members of Mepa to agree to this advocacy.”
“That means that we have to strike an MOA with everyone else in the Mepa,” he said.
An insider in the Mepa meeting before the signing of the MOA said that there was ambivalent receptions to the adaption of the red-flag guidelines. “The small electric cooperatives, for instance, would cast suspicion on the favorable endorsement of the bigger power generation companies to the advocacy.”
But generally, Francisco Lara Jr., country director of the London-based International Alert, “there was a consensus that Mepa can proceed with signing the MOA.”
“To be clear about this red-flag items, these are not laws and regulations that every company should obey to avoid being charged by a tribunal or body,” he said.
“These are only guidelines that these companies should start thinking about observing in their operations because not doing it may likely send them into conflicts or face court charges later,” he said.
International Alert developed the guidelines that would serve as warning indicators. Lara said these have been internationally accepted, saying that International Alert has applied these principles with other organizations elsewhere.
He said the guidelines were meant to avoid the occurrence of conflicts or exacerbating them, by doing operations sensitive to the social and political peculiarities of communities where the companies or industries operate.
International Alert has linked up with the Mindanao Multi-Sectoral Group (MMG), whose members are individuals belonging to various government and nongovernment organizations, and the private sector, including key officials of MinBC.
Torres said the MinBC has adopted the International Alert principles as its own advocacy.
Lara said that this was the first major link-up of its allied organization, the MMG, with an industry that has a wide network and vital impact on communities. He said International Alert would also go into the mining industry to strike an agreement that would bind mining companies to rein in their operations within the red-flag principle.
No comments:
Post a Comment