DENR chief misinformed on mining; gov’t losing billions due to illegal miners

by Madelaine B. Miraflor August 22, 2016

http://www.mb.com.ph/denr-chief-misinformed-on-mining-govt-losing-billions-due-to-illegal-miners/

While her intentions are clear, Environment Chief Gina Lopez is supposedly misinformed about the country’s mining sector that’s why she seems to have a biased view on the already highly-challenged industry.

Then for the sake of fairness, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) were asked to give more attention to illegal miners instead of just focusing on major mining companies.

“The secretary has a very good heart but she has to be informed,”  UP National Institute for Geological Sciences Director Carlo Arcilla said in a forum held in Kamuning, Quezon City on Monday.

 “Even if the contribution of mining in the Philipine economy is just one percent, it might mean 100 percent to the involved communities. Mining is a complicated business, it’s easy to condemn but it can do a lot of good provided that it is regulated, the environment be protected and the government is willing to listen to experts,” he added.

Philex Mining Corp. Senior Vice President for Public and Regulatory Affairs Mike Toledo, who was in the same forum, said while it is good that Lopez is very passionate on what she does, she must also be very considerate.

“Now that you are a Secretary, every time that a decision has to be made, you also have to listen to all, you also have to listen to scientific data, evidence, and other information, then you make a decision,” Toledo told reporters.

“I admire Lopez’ advocacy and we need somebody like that, someone who is very passionate, who believes strongly on responsible mining. Maybe it’s about time that we have somebody with that passion but it is important that now being already the Secretary, you hace to know the difference of being an advocate and a government official,” he further said.

Arcilla also reminded that mining operations are really meant to look unpleasant but it’s also provided in the law that all of the mines should be rehabilitated.

Before becoming a secretary, a known anti-mining advocate Lopez said before that all mining sites are “ugly”.

“Mining is not over until the land is fully rehabilitated. It’s like construction of a building, there’s no construction site that looks good. When you are extracting soil, it really doesn’t look good. The problem comes in when the miner don’t rehabilitate,” Arcilla said.

Arcilla said instead of focusing on its crackdown on major mining operations, the government should give more attention on illegal miners, citing that some Chinese businessmen abusing small scale mining permits.

According to him, the government can “easily lose billions of revenues” because of transport pricing in nickel, an activity popular among small scale miners.

He said that what these local miners will do is export nickel in Hong Kong at low rates then from there, the commodity will be exported to China at a higher price.

“These issues are giving the industry a bad name. DENR and MGB are the ones who should check that,” Arcilla said.

Meanwhile, Toledo said that structural reforms in government, such as the separation of MGB from DENR, are needed in order to properly regulate the highly-criticized mining sector.