Mining policy still up for consultations

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino confirmed yesterday a “policy statement” on mining would be issued by his administration to lay down the principles and broad directions it would want to take as regards the sector.

But Aquino said this was still a  “work in progress”  and would be presented to various stakeholders for further consultations.

“I’m as excited as you are to see the finished draft. But the proposal (on Wednesday) was permission to engage these various stakeholders in the five points of what has been discussed by the economic cluster,”  Aquino said in an ambush interview with reporters after the the inauguration of the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea’s (PEFTOK) Korean War Memorial Hall at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

Asked when it would come out, the President said it should no longer take “months.” 

“What they presented was like a policy statement. This will be vetted or passed through the various stakeholders. They asked for permission to go through series of consultations with all of the stakeholders before adopting this final draft. So it’s not yet finished. They will still have to discuss with the various entities that are very much concerned with the mining in our country,” Aquino said.

“So that includes, the ecological groups, the mining groups, the local government units and so on and so forth, isn’t it? So it’s still not a finished policy. It’s still a work in progress,” he said.

The President said he was willing to release the draft document if necessary as he also reiterated the proposal to preserve 78 eco-tourism sites and exclude them from mining activities. 

The document that was shown to him, Aquino said, did not contain the list of the 78 sites.

From the policy statement, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said other steps to be taken like the issuance of an executive order or proposed legislation to revise the current mining laws would be laid down too.

Carandang said more than an EO, what the government would have to do was clarify and harmonize its mining rules and vision. He also said the formula that the government would want on mining revenues would also be included.

Carandang explained the policy statement would have to address all contentious positions of stakeholders as one full-fledged policy could not be forced on them at once.