Mining stakeholders urge Philippine government to relax mining exploration application

Stakeholders of the mining industry in Mindanao, Philippines urged the government to relax the rigid process on the application of permits for mining exploration.

The business sector in the island will submit a resolution through Secretary Lito Atienza to look at the issuance of mining exploration permit during the Mining Summit that will be held in Davao City on September 18 to 19, 2008 even as they are saying there is no point in making different rules of miining exploration application.

It was learned that at the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau office based in Davao City there are 14 pending applications while 20 applications were endorsed to MGB central office and none so far have been approved.

The business sector of Mindanao supports the mining industry and they are there to see to it that mining investment must be protected. But the country has antiquated mining laws and this has to be addressed.

The country has been ranked in the top ten for mineral reserves yet it also falls among the top 50 countries with no investments.

These reserves must be explored inorder for the government to know how much of these resources are there said the business sector even as they expressed that application of mining permits should not be caught with bureaucratic red tapes even and they vowed they will not take it sitting down.

In fact he said they had conducted dialogues with different sectors including the religious because they want to know the sentiments of all sectors.

At the Mining Summit there will be workshops and sessions and among these are discussions on social responsibility within the community and for the business sector to see mining investors comply with responsible mining.

The business sector want responsible mining to take place in Mindanao otherwise they will also be the first to take action against those who will exploit the mineral resource even as they warned that proper mitigation be applied to ensure that the resource is protected.

It may be recalled that with the passage of the Philippine Mining Act in 1995 (RA 7942), the mining industry experienced slow investments pouring into the country. As this developed, a National Policy Action Plan was crafted which prompted President Arroyo to sign Executive Order No. 270, the National Policy Agenda on Revitalizing the Mining Industry in the Philippines to boost investments in the industry.

Over the years, emerging issues crop up brought about by the tedious process of applying for mining permit and the practice of some applications to sit on their mining claims for more than two years.