THE Chamber of Mines of the Philippines on Monday asked President Rodrigo Duterte to review the closure and suspension orders issued by Environment Secretary Regina Lopez, calling them “irresponsible, unfair and illegal.”
In a statement, COMP chairman Art Disini said Lopez’s decision to close 23 large-scale operating mines and suspend five others would hurt 1.2 million Filipinos whose livelihood depend on legal mining and cripple local governments that benefit from the taxes paid by the industry.
“Her actions have finally revealed her true bias: to stop all mining in the Philippines,” the group said.
The group also said that it was ironic that Lopez focused on legitimate operations, but turned a blind eye to illegal, undocumented, non-taxpaying and non-compliant mining operations that were “the real violators of [the] environment.”
The chamber also accused Lopez of creating an unstable policy environment that threatened the economic growth momentum under the Duterte administration and “putting in limbo $22 billion worth of investments.”
“She is attacking the only industry in the country that has actually replanted over 20 million trees nationwide in the past few years alone, deceptively using images of active mining areas as ‘evidence’ that no rehabilitation is happening…and slowly killing an industry that has faithfully paid billions in taxes and fees annually.”
“We respectfully appeal to the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to thoroughly review the actions of the DENR secretary-designate relating to the minerals sector, and their serious repercussions [on] the country as a whole as they are without basis, fairness and legality,” the chamber said.
The chamber noted that Lopez’s predecessor required the mining companies to subject themselves to a yearlong certification process under the ISO 14001, which Lopez herself described on July 1, 2016 as “another way of saying responsible mining.”
In the House, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe urged Congress to exercise its oversight powers to determine if Lopez’s actions were legal.
Batocabe said that while he supports responsible mining, the DENR should ensure that its decision will not hurt the industry that has contributed significantly to the economy. exercise its oversight functions and look into the factual, scientific and legal bases for such a decision,” Batocabe said.
The Finance Department on Monday ordered local treasurers to assess the revenue impact the mine closures would have on their respective areas.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said he ordered the assessment because the mine closures could imperil the fiscal state of local government units in areas that host the mining operations.
“Our primary concern is the revenues of the municipalities. That’s why we asked the treasurers already to give us a quick-round assessment of how much is going to be lost in revenues,” Dominguez said.
Preliminary data from the department’s Bureau of Local Government Finance show that at least 10 municipalities and one city would be hurt by the DENR’s order to close down 23 mine sites, while one city and four municipalities would be affected by the suspensions.
Dominguez said that initially, he had discussed with the heads of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary and the Departments of Labor and Employment, Social Welfare and Development, Public Works and Highways, and Trade and Industry how to address the impact of the DENR move on jobs and LGU revenues.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that while emergency employment can be provided to displaced workers, this would only be temporary.
Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, meanwhile, said he will look into additional projects in communities hardest hit by the mine closures so that jobs for the laid-off workers can be provided under a proposed supplemental budget.
“The Cabinet members are obviously also very concerned about unemployment and people not having income, so we will put our shoulder to the wheel to address that issue first,” Dominguez said.
The Philippines is the world’s top supplier of nickel ore and the main exporter to China. The order has already caused a rise in global nickel prices and a fall in local mining shares.
“I don’t think [Lopez] did it arbitrarily but anything like this would need a response like more scientific and data-driven studies,” said Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia.
“Obviously it will have an effect on gross domestic product (GDP) and employment but we don’t have the hard data,” he said.
In a statement Sunday, Lopez said she would outdo the industry, declaring “give me… maximum of two years. I will prove that a green economy can create more jobs than mining could ever create.”
She also said mine workers would not end up unemployed but would be found jobs in mine rehabilitation and reforestation.
“My issue is not about mining, my issue is about social justice,” she said.
Eufracia Taylor, Asia analyst at risk advisory company Verisk Maplecroft, warned that stricter oversight and the review of licenses would likely prompt companies to delay further investment.
She also cited “mounting concerns over new environmental and social requirements, and their potential to drive up the costs of compliance” in the nickel industry.
“The prospect of higher operational costs could well impact the commercial viability of some projects,” the Singapore-based Taylor said.
Also on Monday, the director of the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences urged Lopez to make public the basis for her closure orders.
Carlos Arcilla said that while he agrees with Lopez that irresponsible mining operations should be shut down, he is puzzled as to why Lopez had not furnished the mining firms copies of the mining audit, which should have been the basis for ordering their closure and suspension.
“We are interested to know what the bases are for closing mines–we have to teach future geologists and engineers the correct and scientific ways to mine so as not to endanger the environment,” he added.
Arcilla noted that when Lopez announced the closure and suspension of the mining sites, technical personnel of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau which conducted the mining audit, were barred from attending her press briefing.
“The basis for the mine closures have not been made public, and they have not been given to the mines that are to be closed. This tells me that the main basis for mine closures is emotion, superficial impressions,” Arcilla added.
Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said the P6.93-billion fund of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for its National Greening Program this year could be used to help mine workers who will lose their jobs due to DENR’s wholesale revocation of mining permits.
As shutdowns loom, Recto urged Malacañang to form an inter-agency group that will seek ways to help affected workers, including earmarking a portion of the NGP for them.
“It can be part of a larger ‘safety net’ that will cushion the economic dislocation of tens of thousands of workers in this sector.”
“Rich mine owners won’t feel the pinch. They have a made a stockpile of money. It is the people on the ground who will bear the full brunt of the closure of their workplaces,” Recto said.
Launched in 2010, the NGP is a multiyear project to regreen denuded and despoiled forest lands, including coastal mangrove areas. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, AFP