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DAVAO
CITY—An influential mining group in Mindanao has asked
the national government to consider putting up a
clearing-house in Mindanao for all applications of
mining permits and licenses to remove a major obstacle
to a vibrant mining activity, at least in southern
Philippines.
Edgar
Martinez, president of the Mindanao Association for
Mineral Industries (Mina), said he would suggest that
such a clearing-house be put up, “probably within the
Medco [Mindanao Economic Development Council] office so
that all mining applications be cleared here for fast
approval.”
Agreeing
with local government officials and business leaders on
the observation that approval of applications “has
become centralized than decentralized,” Martinez said
that the clearing-house would entail “Manila to come
here to the clearing-house and help in the process.”
“Instead
of our applications going to Manila only to stay dormant
there, this time, it would be the regions that would
clear the applications and send them only to Manila for
approval,” he said. He said this would “remove the
alibis of Manila on why they were sitting on our
applications.”
He also
confirmed that often applications get approved in the
regions, “sometimes in just three months,” but when sent
to the head offices of approving agencies, “they
suddenly stay there for a long time.”
“They
just sit on our applications,” he said.
Ednar
Carlos Dayanghirang, executive director of the Mindanao
Business Council, said on Monday during a press
conference hosted by the Davao Press Club that “this is
what we would like to petition [the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)] to return the
approving power back to the regions because that is
already in the law, but which the government has put
some new resolutions so that it has been back to the
secretary to approve all applications.”
Director
Edilberto Arreza of the Davao office of the Mines and
Geosciences Bureau (MGB) also said that the law has
already allowed the approval of mining applications in
the level of the regional director. “But in practice, it
is still the secretary that approves the applications.”
“It is
also advantageous for both mining companies and the
local governments and other regional agencies to make
the clearing-house in Mindanao because our experience
before was that it was easier and faster to haggle with
each other and to find out what still needs to be done
in the areas, and the requirements to be complied,” he
said.
The MGB
has identified 34 major projects in the Davao
region—composed of the three Davao provinces and
Compostela Valley, and the cities of Davao, Panabo,
Tagum and Samal—but Arreza said that only two projects
were ongoing but already old.
These
were the mining for cement by Holcim of France and for
gold by Apex Mining Co. in upper Maco, Compostela
Valley.
Four
others remained in their exploration stage, despite the
MGB projection that in the revitalized Mineral Program
of the region, the four projects should have been
operating already by this year.
The MGB,
DENR, National Econo-mic and Development Authority and
the MinBC would hold a summit and forum next month here
to determine why the mining industry performed way below
expectation from a hype that the industry would deliver
an economic miracle for the nation.
Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana, chairman of the
Medco, said he was open to the suggestion of Martinez to
base the clearing house inside his office. “But it needs
some modifications and improvement in the status of
Medco, to make it a permanent office, for example, so
that it can really attend to the industry for as long as
it is there.”
“We must
revisit the mining law also, and to make sure that the
local governments must be empowered because they are the
key to solving the problem in the industry,” he said.
He said
“the law thrives on experience and must be responsive to
the needs of the time”. “If a law has become old and
unresponsive, it must be refashioned and retailored.”
Also,
Leyretana added, “There should be cohesiveness,
consistency and continuity in the policy regarding
responsible mining.”
“The
implementing rules and regulations of that policy must
also ensure a mechanism on monitoring and evaluation,
with a multisectoral body to compose it, and to be kept
abreast of the developments,” he said. |
