MANILA,
July 12 (PNA) -- House Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo "Erin"
Tanada III said Executive Order No. 79 recently signed by President
Benigno S. Aquino III, coupled with a new mining law, will address the
concerns of the mining industry.
Tanada, author of House Bill No. 206 or the "Alternative Minerals Management Bill," said that EO 79 on mining has sparked renewed interest in the industry, and coupled with his proposed measure, "the concerns of the mining industry will be fully addressed."
"If we pair EO 79 with the House Bill 206, we have the mining industry striking it's first gold," he stressed.
Tanada said mining has been such a problematic industry for so long as it implicates issues in areas of governance, economic policy and environmental sustainability.
Despite the implementation of the EO, he said it is still important to enact a new mining law "because many of the industry's problems can be traced back to the Mining Act of 1995 -- in the endless tax holidays of mining companies, in the lack of safeguards against irresponsible contractors, and the rent-seeking system of applying for mining permits."
"The real problem of mining is the faulty premise in the Mining Act that the industry creates revenues and jobs -- which it doesn't -- and therefore its needs trump the interests of the community being mined," he noted.
Tanada said mining "implicates issues in areas of governance, economic policy, and environmental sustainability. Naturally, the scope of a law to fix those glitches is broad and requires a lengthy process of consideration and debate."
As such, he said it is still important to enact a new law on mining.
Tanada cited figures from 2000-2009 which stated the industry's job-creation at a negligible 0.376 percent while its revenue effort averaged around half the national figure at 7.8 percent.
Though effective, he averred that the EO is "not a substitute for a new mining law."
"Because of the inherent limitation of an executive order, it can only prescribe rules for the execution of a law, it cannot change the law. What the Executive has given us here is a starting push, but it cannot do our work for us. Legislation is Congress' work and beyond even the President's powers," he noted.
Tanada, author of House Bill No. 206 or the "Alternative Minerals Management Bill," said that EO 79 on mining has sparked renewed interest in the industry, and coupled with his proposed measure, "the concerns of the mining industry will be fully addressed."
"If we pair EO 79 with the House Bill 206, we have the mining industry striking it's first gold," he stressed.
Tanada said mining has been such a problematic industry for so long as it implicates issues in areas of governance, economic policy and environmental sustainability.
Despite the implementation of the EO, he said it is still important to enact a new mining law "because many of the industry's problems can be traced back to the Mining Act of 1995 -- in the endless tax holidays of mining companies, in the lack of safeguards against irresponsible contractors, and the rent-seeking system of applying for mining permits."
"The real problem of mining is the faulty premise in the Mining Act that the industry creates revenues and jobs -- which it doesn't -- and therefore its needs trump the interests of the community being mined," he noted.
Tanada said mining "implicates issues in areas of governance, economic policy, and environmental sustainability. Naturally, the scope of a law to fix those glitches is broad and requires a lengthy process of consideration and debate."
As such, he said it is still important to enact a new law on mining.
Tanada cited figures from 2000-2009 which stated the industry's job-creation at a negligible 0.376 percent while its revenue effort averaged around half the national figure at 7.8 percent.
Though effective, he averred that the EO is "not a substitute for a new mining law."
"Because of the inherent limitation of an executive order, it can only prescribe rules for the execution of a law, it cannot change the law. What the Executive has given us here is a starting push, but it cannot do our work for us. Legislation is Congress' work and beyond even the President's powers," he noted.
Tanada,
however, stressed that the EO, though limited, "was a success of the
campaign for mining reforms because it accepted the fundamental position
of the advocates that some drastic change has to be made to the
industry." (PNA)
No comments:
Post a Comment