A bill changing how the spoils of mining are divided between companies and the government will be filed in Congress in September, Presidential Adviser on Environmental Protection Neric Acosta said.
“It would be submitted to this new Congress by early September so that you don’t have to wait for another few months–isalang na kaagad,” Acosta told InterAksyon.com
He said the Mining Industry Coordinating Council’s (MICC) technical working groups have been threshing out the details of the bill, including the classification of metallic and non-metallic minerals, and the role of local governments and small-scale mining, among others.
“With that, what would you do with Mt. Diwalwal? With Rapu-rapu?” Acosta, who chairs the MICC, said.
“The metallic and non-metallic has long been suggested as you cannot lump them together. And there are also those identified as non-metallic that should be metallic — like black sand mining — that is considered as quarrying and gravel. But it’s not supposed to be because it separates sand and derive magnetite,” he added.
The inter-agency MICC is also updating data on Philippine mines and the fiscal regimes in other mineral-rich countries such as Chile, Botswana, South Africa and Australia that can be used in amending the existing revenue-sharing between the government and the private sector.
The MICC is mapping out the entire Philippines to classify which areas must be declared as protected and “no-go” zones, and which among these are identified as among the most mineralized.
Acosta said the most mineralized regions in the Philippines are Cordillera, Zamboanga Peninsula, Palawan, CARAGA and the Nueva Vizcaya-Isabela regions.
He said Cordillera is the most contentious of all because of land use issues.
“Pwedeng may land use sa itaas tapos may mining sa ilalim? Pwede ba yun? Tapos may private patents, may mga exemptions. If you based it on slopes and elevations, Cordillera is all no-go,” he said.
“[But] how can you make it no-go when Lepanto has been there, Philex is there. Mining has so much part in the histories of this area,” he added.
In addition, the government has yet to resolve the issue of Palawan, which has been identified as a “no-go” protected zone even though three big mining firms are in the province.
While the inter-agency body is trying to sort out these conflicting issues, it is also waiting for additional maps to be able to complete the draft for the bill on protected areas, Acosta said.
Other bills that may come out of the MICC technical working groups is one governing small-scale mining and another setting forth regulations based on international standards.
Source: Likha Cuevas-Miel, InterAksyon.com, July 27, 2013
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