Senator Cayetano inclined to revise RP mining act

First posted 12:59pm (Mla time) June 13, 2006
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=4718

(UPDATE) SENATOR Pia Cayetano, head of the committee on environment and natural resources and health and demography, indicated on Tuesday that she was more inclined to revise, not repeal, the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

“The basic law provides the general parameter, the problem is with the implementation...Let's not be hasty in repealing the law because even the proponents of the repeal are clearly not for exploiting our natural resources for economic gain without balancing social and environmental impact,” Cayetano said after a hearing on the bills for repeal filed by Senators Ana Consuelo Madrigal and Sergio Osmeña III.

“Mining can be acceptable...We cannot live without mining unless we want to be completely dependent on the importation of key minerals,” said Cayetano who filed a bill to amend and revise the law.

Cayetano’s committee is currently hearing the different measures calling for a review, repeal, or amendment of the mining law.

Joyce Palacol of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) proposed strengthening the scoping process, which measures the social acceptability of a mining activity in an area.

“In the granting of environmental impact assessments, mining companies submit only attendance sheets, not actual agreements from the residents of the place,” Palacol said.
Palacol also proposed that government officials who would violate the law be sanctioned and that tax incentives be reviewed.

Jocelyn Villanueva, executive director of Legal Rights and Natural Resource Center, proposed that minerals to be extracted would be those that we need: iron and copper.

Dr. Lyn Panganiban, head of the National Poison Control Information Service of the University of the Philippines, noted that abandoned and existing mines not covered by the law continued to create “havoc” among the people in the mining communities. She cited an abandoned mine in Palawan province, which has caused developmental problems for kids as young as six months.

Dr. Carlos Primo David, associate professor at the National Institute for Geological Sciences of UP, recommended that safeguards “during and after” the mining activities be instituted. He said that the present mining law only required safeguards before the mining activities.

Earlier on Tuesday, Nelia Halcon, executive vice president of the ASEAN Federation of Mining Association, said the Philippine mining law was better in terms of environmental protection compared to the UK mining law, in indigenous peoples' protection compared to the US, in corporate social responsibility compared to Canada, and in control of environmental resources compared to Australia.

Halcon however was quick to point out that the problem with the Philippine mining law was in its implementation.

“May problema talaga sa implementation [There is really a problem in implementation]. While the people at the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] and the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau are efficient, the budget is really small. They cannot go and monitor mining violations as in Rapu-rapu because there's a cost to going there,” she said.