MANILA, Philippines — Mining investments this year may hit only $1 billion, $2 billion lower than the government’s original forecast of $3 billion, in light of the many challenges facing the industry, the latest of which is the insurgency issue in the rural areas where mining projects are situated.
Philip Romualdez, president of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, told reporters at the sidelines of the 37th Philippine Business Conference held at the Manila Hotel that the government set a $3 billion mining investments for 2011 but revised it to $2.5 billion and is set to drop again this new target.
“So, it looks like we are going to get $1 billion mining investments only this year,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez appeared exasperated at the many challenges facing the mining sector, not only on the opposition coming from non-governmental organizations, the religious sector and the local government units, but the national government as well.
“We just can’t keep issuing checks when there are no mining permits and licenses being granted,” he said as he noted that even the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) ‘seemed to be lost also.’
Romualdez lamented at the fact that while the industry is faced with many challenges, it is also relied upon to provide opportunities for livelihood, foreign direct investments, trade, trade and pumping up the economy because mining contributes as much as 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
“And yet we feel we are not getting the support we badly need. We are always misunderstood,” he said.
He explained that mining projects are government projects also because the government owns the mineral resources and the mining companies are just tasked to explore these mineral resources.
If their explorations turned out to be empty, he said, the government does not lose but the private sector mining proponent. Still, he said, oppositions are being waged even if a company is only doing exploration works on a prospective mining site.
Lately, the mining sector was hit by insurgency problem as rebels swooped down on their operations in the countryside.
“We are risking our lives and business in areas where there are security concerns,” he pointed.
Being government-owned projects, Romualdez said it is also the responsibility of the government to protect their own projects.
“It is the government’s job to protect and provide security to these mining projects. We cannot arm ourselves,” he said.
While opposition groups to mining operations would easily point out to tourism industry as a good economic contributor, Romualdez said that mining companies operate in rural areas that are not suited for tourism projects.
==============================================================================
Source: Manila Bulletin, October 16, 2011
To view the original article, click here.
Comment here