MALACAÑANG said on Thursday that the Aquino administration will pursue “a more rational mining policy” that would guide small-scale mining operations in the country, following the mining disaster in Compostela Valley.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a news briefing that this was agreed upon during Palace meeting, led by President Aquino and attended by concerned Cabinet officials, on mining policies in the country.

“Without going into details, we are going to come up with a more rational mining policy,” Lacierda said.

He said that aside from him, others in the meeting were Secretaries Cesar Purisima of Finance, Florencio Abad of Budget, Ramon Paje of Environment, Jesse Robredo of the Interior, Leila de Lima of Justice and Gil de los Reyes of Agrarian Reform;  Presidential Political Adviser Ronald Llamas and Chief Peace Adviser Teresita Deles.

“The President said that we’re going to discuss the mining policies and rationalizing the mining policies of the country. So there were certain directives given by the President. Certain solutions were suggested, and there’s going to be some movements in some areas, especially in areas of local government units and the national government with respect to small-scale mining,” Lacierda said.

Lacierda said presentations were given by Paje, Purisima, Robredo and the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), among others, on the country’s mining policy and how it affects host communities.

“We discussed about small-scale and large-scale mining and coming up with certain recommendations, what’s the problem, what are the issues, what are the directions to be given,” Lacierda said.

He said that based on the presentations and the discussions, “there was a decision to make sure that certain mining policies be refined, retuned and the issues of local laws and national laws on mining be further clarified.”

Lacierda cited the concern raised during the meeting about the employment of child laborers in small-scale mining.

“DOJ...[was] told that our laws be enforced. The DSWD was also told to make sure that all these areas where child laborers being used in mining, make sure they are monitored and they should be prohibited. Those are some of the concerns and issues there.”

Gina Lopez, who heads the Pasig River Reclamation Commission, gave a presentation on her opposition to mining in Palawan.