The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), stated that the next government must create a stable business environment in order for the mining sector to be able to support the country’s recovery efforts after the pandemic.
According to Michael Toledo (Company Chairman), a stable business environment in the mining sector is “where policies can be trusted, contracts and investments can be protected, and the rules don’t change mid-stream.”
Toledo spoke recently to the Consular Corps of the Philippines members, which is an association of diplomats as well as consular officers. He stressed that mining, especially in a country with $1 trillion of untapped mineral resources (or equivalent to three times the country’s 2021 gross domestic products (GDP)), “has tremendous potential to contribute towards socio-economic growth.”
Toledo said that mining used to be a major contributor in the Philippine economy. In particular, the 1980s, when the industry accounted to 21 percent of the country’s export earnings and 2 percent of its GDP, Toledo said. In 2020, mining’s share of total exported fell to 8 % and to 0.6 %.
He blamed the decline on a number of factors, including the “policy roadblocks”, which included the recently lifted 9 year moratorium on new mining projects as well as the 4-year ban against open pit mining.
Toledo made reference to the Tampakan Project, Mindanao’s closed-pit mining ban. He said that the industry requires “the next government to harmonize the local and national laws to prevent conflicts on the ground.”
He stated that Tampakan can be combined with Silangan and Kingking to increase national government revenues by P12 trillion a year, local revenues by P1.5billion, exports and social expenditures by approximately P800 million per year. Toledo said that royalties to indigenous tribes will rise by more than P600 million annually.
He stated that the Philippine Mining Act of 1996 is considered to be one of modern mining laws. Its social and environmental provisions are comparable with those in industrialized countries. It is necessary to improve the ability of both the national and local governments to fully implement the plan.
Toledo said, “We hope the next government will continue its roles as facilitators, partners, and demonstrators of environment, social and governance (ESG), best practices in the mine sector.”