New mining law addresses concerns of industry -- Tanada

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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, 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) 

TAMPAKAN SAGITTARIUS MINES, NATIONAL GREENING PROGRAM AND SAVING PHILIPPINE FORESTS

 

 

 

 

Apart from community-based programs under their Corporate Social Responsibility, the most tangible evidence of mining companies complying with rules and regulations on environmental protection under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 is their programs on reforestation.

The mining act mandates that mining companies must replace if not restore vegetation destroyed in the process of the mining operation.

The Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) behind the US$55 million Tampakan Gold-Copper Project in South Cotabato, is among those closely watched by government on compliance with environmental protection.
But the Department of Ennvironment and Natural Resources (DENR) may not be having headaches in monitoring SMI.
Even before it could start operation in 2016, SMI, with a 10,000-hectare concession that straddles South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur, already has set into place a massive and continuing regreening program started as early as 2008.

Tree-planting activities, in the concession area and extending to areas adjacent to it, are ongoing being implemented by SMI and backstopped by peoples organizations, NGOs, socio-civic clubs, schools, corporate entities, Church groups, local overnment units and other sectors who are pursuing their own respective reforestation and tree planting projects and provided by SMI with seedlings and other planting materials.

South Cotabato is a victim of uncontrolled illegal logging in the past, and illegal mining in the present, and has lost nearly all of its forest covers. The SMI greening program is helping it restore lost forests.
As what is happening everywhere, the people of South Cotabato are aware of global warming and how depleted forests had contrubuted to it, and are willing to help over-all efforts to help solve the climatic crisis placing Mother Earth in grave danger.
SMI with its resources may have come as an angel helping in the mission, at least in South Cotabato and its environs, to arrest global warming through its corporate reforestation program and linkages with various groups in the tree planting campaign.

The DENR has acknowledged that mining companies have resources to engage in massive reforestation, not only as part of their compliance with the
Philippine Mining Act, but also as an important partner in the National Greening Program (NGP).
This is the reason why DENR has entered into memorandum of agreements with mining companies foremost of which is the SMI as important partners of the government in the implementation of the NGP.
For its part, SMI has pushed the antes further as far as the greening program is concerned by entering into partnerships with local government units in Region Eleven and Region Twelve in the collaborative effort of successfully implementing the NGP.
Unlike before the mining act of 1995 when mining companies were not mandated to embed reforestation programs in their operations, the mining companies of today are forced to adopt responsible mining as the barometer of how deserving they are of the permits given them by the government.
The “sins of the past” of mining companies–massive floods, forest denudation and other threats to environment and people—are now being addressed by the Philippine Mining Act that imposes responsible mining as the mantra that should govern mining operations that must balance environmental protection with economic activities.

It is with high hopes mining companies would play an important role in the NGP that is targeting about 500,000 hectares for tree planting in the period 2012 to 2016.
The DENR projects the Philippines would have more green forest areas than deforested ones if NGP meets its 2016 goal of planting some 1.5 billion tree seedlings in about 1.5 million hectares of open, denuded and degraded forest land nationwide.
Philippine areas designated as forests account for about half of the country’s estimated total land area of some 30 million hectares.
Studies show that deforestation reduced the country’s forest cover from over 50 percent of land at the 20th century’s start to only about 24 percent at present. ROGER M. BALANZA

Mining company eyeing gold, copper in Davao City – The Durian Post No. 113 – Front Page

15,600-hectare concession awaiting okay of City Hall, NCIP

BY ROGER M. BALANZA, 

A mining company has applied to explore gold and copper in about 15,660 hectares in Marilog District in Davao City.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Region Eleven, in its website,  said the application of Mambusao Mining Corporation has already been endorsed to the Davao City government and the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for their recommendation and comment.
The Mambusao Mining application is numbered EXPA 000116-XI as recorded in the list of applications with the MGB XI.
The application, covering 15,660 hectares was filed in 2005 and published in the newspaper in 2008
MGB’s last posting on Mambusao indicated it has been endorsed to the local government and NCIP in 2010.
But the Mambusao project may not push through with both Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and her father Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte warning that the local government would not allow mining in the city.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and MGB are aware of the local government’s posiition on mining that it will never be allowed here, said city planning officer Roberto Alabado when asked to comment on the application.
Alabado also said a pending bill in the House of Representatives authored by Davao City Third District Congressman Isidro Ungab would serve as another stumbling block to the Mambusao application.
The Ungab bill would declare Davao City as a “No Mining Zone.”
The Dutertes’ position on mining and the Ungab proposed bill are not the only mountains that Mambusao must subdue to secure a nod from government.
The communist New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the leftist National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDPF), the umbrella of all leftist organizations, had made public statements against mining in Davao City.
The NPA has a heavy presence in Marilog and nearby Paquibato, where the NPA Pulang Bagani Command under Kumander Leoncio “Parago” Pitao is based.
Vice Mayor Duterte said earlier said that the Davao City Council, where he is the presiding officer, would shoot down any request for mining projects in the city.
He said mineral resources in the city should be treated as a”piggy bank” for future Dabawenyos. He adds that mining may be allowed in the city in future when perfected technologies that would prevent accidents and threats to ennvironment and people are already available.
For her part, Mayor Duterte said mining could not bring economic benefits to ordinary people. She also noted shaky peacee and order situations in areas with mining operations. She said mining poses grave threats to the environment.
The Dutertes bared their position on mining amid a flood of foreign  investments pouring into the city.
Accordingly, some of the investors signified intentions to explore and mine minerals in Marilog and Paquibato, located upland of the city.
The Mambusao mining application has surfaced as sitio Ladian in Marilog was hit by a landslide that killed a 10-year old girl and prompted the local government to order the relocation of residents, mostly inndigenous people of the Matigsalog tribe,
The NDFP assailed the relocation order of Mayor Duterte, and tied the government action to alleged landgrabbing of ancestral domain in Marilog and to the Mambusao mining application, despite the publicly announced position against  mining of the Dutertes.
In a press statement emailed to the Durian Post, Rubi del Mundo,
NDFP-Southern Mindanao spokesman, said the “relocation of Matigsalog Lumad victims and declaration of hazardous areas in the wake of the landslides in sitio Ladian, Brgy. Marilog will be more beneficial to landgrabbing CADT holders and big mining corporations.”
A contagious area of over 120,000 hectares in Davao City, Bukidnon and
North Cotabato had been declared as ancestral domain by NCIP and awarded to the Kitaotao, Bukidnon-based Federation of Manobo-Matigsalog
Tribal Councils (FEMMATRICS) under Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) No. R-10-KIT 0703-0011. More than  half of the area covered by the title is located in Davao City.
Del Mundo said the relocation was aimed to clear the way for the Mabusao operation.
“Areas declared by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau as geo-hazardous are also areas opened by its head office, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, to mining corporations such as the Mambusao Mining Corporation. The areas of sitio Mabuhay, Salumay, Namnam and East Marahan in Brgy. Marilog are being eyed by the same firm for its gold and copper mining operations covering 15,660 hectares, ” said del Mundo.
The communist spokesman also said “opportunist” tribal leaders have been selling ancestral domain lands under CADT No. R-10-KIT 0703-0011 to big business.
Wholesale landgrabbing of ancestral lands for private ownership by  (tribal leaders) are facilitated by the National Commission in Indigenous Peoples and paramilitary (indigenous people), said del Mundo.
“By all means, the masses should be protected from the natural calamities. But for them to be displaced from supposed perilous sites and to find their lands exploited by mining operations and landgrabbing Lumad clans, is indeed, the height of deceit, opportunism and oppression, said the rebel spokesman.