A PARTY-LIST group on Monday asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to help alleviate the situation of small-scale miners “instead of threatening them of losing their decades-old source of livelihood.”
Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna, who chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources, issued the call during a gathering of small- and large-scale miners in Itogon, Benguet.
In the meeting, Zarate described the Mining Act of 1995 as being “lopsided in the favor of large-scale mining corporations.”
“The DENR cannot just dismiss the operations of small-scale miners as illegal and demand them to stop. This is livelihood for thousands of people, and it has been so for generations, especially here in the Cordillera.”
“Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez must heed the plight of the ordinary small-scale miners. Instead of closing them down, it must push for the modernization of our small-scale mining industry and support more healthful and ecological practices in mining,” Zarate said.
“The DENR is forcing small-scale miners to supposedly legalize their operations but under a regime that requires very stiff requirements, with little to no support at all from the government. Meanwhile, large-scale mines, mostly foreign, have wrought havoc and destruction to our lands for decades with all incentives given to them. We cannot treat our people this way. The Filipinos and our quest for national industrialization must be the primary beneficiaries of our rich mineral resources,” he added.
In a petition submitted to the Bayan Muna lawmaker, the 20,000-strong Benguet Federation of Small Scale Miners (BFSSM) also bewailed the DENR’s stringent requirements, since the same are “designed to abolish small-scale mining.”
They also called on Zarate’s committee to initiate “meaningful legislative remedial measures to alleviate their sad condition.”
“We seek the support of our small-scale miners for the crafting of a more progressive, pro-people and pro-environment mining law that will help propel our country to industrialization and, at the same time, also gives due support and recognition to small-scale, traditional miners that had eked out a living from our minerals for centuries,” Zarate added.
The Committee on Natural Resources is deliberating on comprehensive mining bills to replace the Mining Act of 1995. It is also looking into amending Republic Act 7076, also known as the Small-Scale Mining Act, to incorporate the concerns of BFSSM and other groups of small mining elsewhere in the country.