THE mining companies should follow environment laws if they want to continue their businesses, President Rodrigo Duterte said as he met with the leaders of the mining industry on Thursday night.
“The President essentially said that for as long as mining groups follow the rules on mining and keep environmental laws in mind, then there will be no problem and they can continue with their operations,” Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.
He echoed Duterte’s pronouncements during the Bangon Marawi Forum at the Conrad Hotel on Friday.
In his dialogue with mining officials, Duterte told the miners how unsustainable mining practices was doing more damage to the surrounding communities due to the destruction of natural resources, such as the muddying of fishing grounds that force fishermen to fish further away and the smaller fishermen unable to make a living.
“You are depriving the people of their livelihood,” Duterte said.
He likewise stressed that every Filipino deserved a piece of the country’s bounty but lamented the number of Filipinos who had died due to unsafe and incorrect mining practices, as well as from the malicious actions of a few mining companies.
Duterte said ”the first spadeful from virgin soil” was already a miniscule form of environmental pollution, but stopping mining was not good for the country as billions of pesos in mining taxed would be forfeited and mining jobs lost.
He said the mining laws were meant to preserve the country.
”I can only implement mining laws to see to it that the environment is amply protected,” he said.
In his second State of the Nation Address, Duterte warned the mining companies that he would tax them “to death” unless they restored the “virginity” of the exploited areas.
He said he would use the revenues from mining taxes to help the host communities that were left “in agony.”
“You have to come up with a substitute, either spend to restore the virginity of the source or I will tax you to death,” Duterte said.