Miners reallocate ₱260-M social fund to COVID-19 fight

Updated May 5, 2020, 8:49 AM By Madelaine B. Miraflor
https://business.mb.com.ph/2020/05/04/miners-reallocate-%e2%82%b1260-m-social-fund-to-covid-19-fight/

Some of the country’s biggest mining companies have so far re-allocated more than ₱260 million of their respective Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) funds for their COVID-19 relief operations.

A data from the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) showed that local mining companies already utilized as much as ₱203.17 million of their SDMP funds for their COVID-19 efforts.

This was used to provide personal protective equipment (PPEs), health supplies and goods, relief goods, and food package to 43,403 frontliners and 578,449 households, a data submitted to Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) showed.

Combined, mining com¬panies have so far re-allocated ₱261.25 million of their SDMP funds.
These companies are Nickel Asia Corp., Platinum Group Metals Corp., Philex Mi n i n g C o r p . , L e p a n t o Consolidated Mining Co., Marcventures Mining & Dev’t. Corp., TVI Resource Dev’t. (Phils.), Inc., Eramen Minerals, Inc., Filminera Resources Corp. & Phil. Gold Processing & Refining Corp., CTP Construction & Development Corp., Car¬rascal Nickel Corp., Saggitarius Mines, Inc., and Silangan Mindanao Mining Co.

The SDMP is supposedly a tool for the develop¬ment and implementation of community programs, projects and activities for the host and neighboring communities of a mining project.

This is a five-year plan geared towards the development of a responsible, self-reliant and resource-based communities capable of developing, implementing and managing development programs, projects and activities.

As of June 2018, the total estimated amount committed by all mining companies in the Philippines for their SDMP was about ₱16.81 billion.