The Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC), co-chaired by Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, will soon conduct a series of forums with mining companies and the general public about the results of the mining reviews it conducted over the last few years.
During the consultation meeting for the draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of EO 130, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director Nieva Natural said there will soon be a series of dissemination fora on the results of the two mining reviews the MICC conducted over the last three years.
Natural’s comment was made in response to a query on where the results of the MICC reviews on mining companies can be accessed.
Furthermore, Natural said the dissemination forum exclusive for mining companies will be held in June, while the one for the general public will be conducted at a much later date in August.
She also said the MICC will publish within the year a policy paper on the mining reviews it conducted.
To recall, in 2019, MICC conducted a second round of its “objective, science-based, and fact-finding” audit of mining operations, but the detailed results of such an audit have not been fully disclosed yet.
Also, in 2018, MICC also had to conduct a review on mining companies to check the integrity of the suspension and closure orders issued by late and former Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez.
At the time, Business Bulletin reported that 26 companies or more than half of the country’s operating metallic mines failed to score ‘acceptable’ in this particular mine audit conducted by MICC.
But this was only according to partial data obtained from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Based on that data, the review measured the companies’ practices as acceptable (3.0), minor corrections needed (2.0), major reforms needed (1.0) and not acceptable (0).
The review also assessed the practices of these miners in terms of legal, technical, environmental, social and economic aspects.
On average, no companies scored 3 or acceptable, while most of the companies needed minor to major corrections.
The aforementioned consultation meeting, where Natural made the announcement, was conducted by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to gather comments regarding the draft IRR of EO 130, which lifted the ban on new mining projects.
Signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on April 14, 2021, EO 130 amended the nine-year-old EO 79 of the Aquino Administration, which imposed a moratorium on new mining projects until new legislation rationalizing revenue-sharing scheme between the government and mining companies is enacted.
During the consultation, MGB clarified that EO 130 only amended one provision of the EO 79, which is the ban on new mining projects, while the rest of its provisions, such as the one that identified no-go zones for mining, have remained intact and effective.