Binding CSR standards for mining firms urged

The government should take prompt and decisive steps in codifying a legally binding set of standards on corporate social responsibility (CSR) tailorfit for the local mining industry, as a way to rebuild public confidence and ease strident protests against certain mining operations resulting from domestic environmental disasters such as the 1996 Marcopper toxic spill, a private think tank has said.

Forensic Law and Policy Strategies Inc.’s (Forensic Solutions) 12th policy paper said that institutionalizing CSR in local mining to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the industry should be anchored on two imperatives: Responsible practices and sustainable development.

The think tank, which was founded five months ago by onetime Justice secretary and solicitor general Alberto Agra, noted that an institutionalized CSR policy “will inspire confidence in the integrity of mining operations” in terms of environmental and social protection.

A codified CSR will also “ensure just and equitable sharing of benefits and available resources; provide an appropriate venue for multi-stakeholders engagement; generate acceptance and support from host communities and other stakeholders; and assure long-term sustainability of the minerals industry,” said Forensic Solutions in its policy paper.

The 12th in a series on assorted topics tackled by the Agra-headed think tank, this paper on a set of mining industry-specific CSR was authored by Agra, also a former head of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, with Faye Josephine Miguel Rañola, a former state solicitor of the Office of the Solicitor General and a court lawyer of the Supreme Court.

In the paper co-written by Agra and Rañola noted that in the Philippines, the precursor of present CSR practices began as early as the 1950s, when mining firms in northern Luzon and Mindanao built extensive road networks, schools, and other public works and involved themselves heavily in the welfare of their host-communities.

The Congress also responded to this urgent need by passing the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 or Republic Act 7942, which emphasizes sustainable development in the industry.

But the Marcopper toxic spill, in which the operator of the mining site — Placer Dome — escaped accountability for the disaster that had devastated Marinduque’s ecosystem and caused lingering health woes to local folks, showed that the mining law was inadequate in addressing CSR concerns in this extractive industry.

The paper said several voluntary non-binding CSR policies could be used by the government as example or guides in coming out with a legally binding, codified form of CSR exclusive for the mining industry.

These include the United Nations Global Compact, a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, it said.

The Global Reporting Initiative, which aims to make reporting on economic, environmental and social performance by all organizations as routine as and comparable to financial reporting is another example that could serve as model for a local CSR code, it added. –Daily Tribune