Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is firm in supporting the policy agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte to prohibit open-pit mining in the country as stated in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA).

During the deliberations on a substitute bill establishing the fiscal regime for mining industry, Arroyo said she would include a provision which explicitly disallows open-pit mining.

The said provision would also impose excise taxes on non-complying mining tenements until they follow the guidelines for additional environmental measures for operating surface metallic mines issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“That’s the amount that we will charge for open-pit mines until such time that they become no longer open-pit within the period prescribed by the DENR,” Arroyo said.

“In other words, our bill will specifically, will explicitly prohibit open-pit mining as defined and give a grace period to be determined by the DENR during which they pay the tax that you say will kill the industry,” she added.

During his SONA on July 23, Duterte warned the mining industry to improve their operations as the government will be imposing new mining policies.

“To the mining industry, I say this once again and maybe for the last time: Do not destroy the environment or compromise our resources,” he said.

“Repair what you have mismanaged. Try to change management radically because this time you will have respective policies. The prohibition of open-pit mining is one,” he added.

Arroyo, at the same time, gave the Department of Finance (DOF) three days to submit their inputs in her proposed provision.

This was after Arroyo learned from Gloria Tan Climaco, a member of the board of trustees of the Chamber of Mines, that it was not the DOF’s priority to implement a fiscal regime in the mining industry.

Instead, it was only Arroyo’s priority, according to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, the Speaker quoted Climaco.

“So I suggest that the industry submit the paper to him (Dominguez), since he has not yet sent a communication that says, notwithstanding the President’s statement, it is not his agenda, because that is what I am asking for,” Arroyo said.

“In the meantime, we presume it is his but we are not going to wait forever. Send it today, and if we do not hear from him in three days, then we will make our own committee report,” he added.

The proposed measure aims to keep the corporate income tax of the mining sector and increase the government share in their net mining revenue.

But according Gerard Brimo, chairman and CEO of Nickel Asia Corp., such measure will result in the loss of mining investments and closure of some mining companies.

“I can categorically say without any doubt that it is going to dry up investments completely in our mineral sector and the other problem that we’re going to be faced with is that there are some operations particularly  copper and gold that are struggling under the current low prices,” he said.

Brimo said they would file a counter-proposal to the measure with the House of Representatives. —NB, GMA News