Miners buck alternative mining bill

MANILA, Philippines – The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) has registered its opposition to House Bill 6342, otherwise known as the alternative mining bill.

HB 6342 aims to scrap the Mining Act of 1995 and introduce a new mining policy to regulate the exploration, development and utilization of mineral resources and ensure equitable sharing of the benefits by the state, indigenous peoples and local communities.

In comments posted in its website, the COMP warned that adopting the bill “will set back and stunt the Philippine mining industry’s continuing growth, and will unduly hamper the Philippine economy’s struggle to cope with the financial crisis.”

According to the COMP, “the radical changes which this bill seeks to introduce will lead to a retrogression of an economic activity enjoying a much needed resurgence. The uncertainty that this bill, if legislated into law, will bring to the country would be devastating and will again result in a time of languishing stagnation in the development of what is otherwise a rising field in the Philippine economy.”

The COMP argued that the existing Mining Act “is serving its purpose of implementing responsible mining and is responsive to national development efforts. The Mining Act is current, comprehensive, environment friendly and already addresses much of the supposed concerns of the bill proponents, thus, it needs no further amendments or worse, an alternative law arising from this bill that is not only constitutionally and legally infirm but fraught with erroneous and redundant provisions.”

The COMP is urging Congress to reject the bill and consider it as “unnecessary and bereft of justification for adoption.”

The COMP expressed the belief that the bill “will definitely be rejected by currently producing mining companies, exploration companies, would-be foreign and local investors, and national and local officials. The bill is also constitutionally and legally infirm as various sections of the bill violate the Philippine Constitution and established legal principles.”

The COMP stressed that the existing Mining Act “has been accepted by all stakeholders and is considered one of the best because it has all the provisions for environmental protection, protection of the rights of IPs/ICCs and communities, corporate social responsibilities and the right of people to be consulted. The constitutionality of the Mining Act has also been upheld by the Supreme Court in its landmark en banc decision issued in December 2004.” -=-Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star)