ENVIRONMENT Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has announced the creation of Task Force Mining Challenge to stop the rampant illegal small-scale mining in gold-rich areas in the country, following a deadly landslide that killed dozens of small-scale miners at a mining site in Barangay Ucab, Itogon, Benguet, during the onslaught of Typhoon Ompong recently.
Admitting that illegal small-scale mining is widespread in gold-rich areas, Cimatu vowed to intensify the campaign against “irresponsible” mining and enforce tighter regulation of the largely unregulated gold mining activity.
The DENR chief, however, said he is not keen on imposing a total ban, saying such will deprive tens of thousands of artisanal small-scale gold miners.
“It is the livelihood of small miners. I am not against small-scale mining, but we need to regulate mining,” Cimatu told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday.
Revenue generating
Instead, Cimatu vowed to legalize the sector by establishing more Minahang Bayan where small-scale mining activities are robust, such as in the Cordillera region, and generate revenues both for the national government and local government units (LGUs).
The Task Force Mining Challenge, he said, is tasked to stop illegal small-scale mining activities. The police and military will also be tapped as the task force’s enforcement arm.
“We will legalize and properly supervise small-scale mining, including tax collection,” Cimatu said.
‘Biggies’
The DENR chief, however, said it does not escape his attention that large-scale mining companies, likewise, operate using heavy equipment, including backhoes, dump truck, pay loaders and conveyors, and are “pretending” to be small scale.
“Some of the holes [entry point of a tunnel] are so big that a truck can get in to haul [ores]. They also have conveyors,” Cimatu said.
The official said LGUs that tolerate illegal small-scale mining will also be investigated, as he was informed that some local officials are also into the business of small-scale mining.
There are two mining laws in the Philippines.
Large-scale mining is covered by Republic Act 7942, or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, while small-scale mining is covered by RA 7076, or the People’s Small-scale Mining Act of 1991.
Large-scale mining is regulated by the DENR, through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), while small-scale mining is regulated by LGUs through the Provincial Mining Regulatory Boards (PMRB).
At the Mining Philippines 2018 Conference and Exhibition on Wednesday night, Cimatu stated, “[I] will do [my] homework” and study the mining laws, adding he was aware of the sentiments of large-scale mining operators as the sector was put into bad light anew because of the Itogon incident.
Cimatu said that he promised local officials in Benguet to fast-track the processing of the application for a Minahang Bayan in the Cordillera that is compliant with environment and mining laws.
Out of control
To recall, the conference’s organizer, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), led by its chairman Gerard H. Brimo, the chief executive officer of Nickel Asia Corp., called on the DENR to take a tougher stance against illegal small-scale mining.
In an interview with reporters at the sideline of the event, Brimo expressed dismay that the incident is being blamed on large-scale mining.
He said the already heavily regulated and taxed large-scale mining should be spared from what he described as “out of control” illegal small-scale mining activities and that the government can do more by strictly enforcing the law.
“We at the chamber are not against small scale. They have their purpose. But small-scale miners are really out of control,” Brimo said.
He also suggested that the government should look into properly regulating the sector and generate much-needed revenues, instead of imposing new and additional “punishing” taxes to large-scale mining companies.
Under Executive Order 79, small-scale mining should be done in designated Minahang Bayan identified by the PMRB and approved by the DENR-MGB.
According to MGB Director Wilfredo Moncano, as far as the DENR is concerned, there are only eight Minahang Bayan in the country. However, he said, there are a dozen locally declared Minahang Bayan.
He said the DENR-MGB is currently processing more than 100 Minahang Bayan applications, even as there are at least 200,000 illegal small-scale miners all over the country.
Largely unregulated, small-scale gold mining used to comprise 75 percent of the country’s annual gold output.
Prior to 2010, before the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue—through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)—decided to strictly collect the 2-percent excise tax on gold sales in small-scale mining, the country’s gold production value attributed to small-scale mining reached up to P40 billion.
Today, gold production value attributed to small-scale mining is less than P1 billion, Moncano revealed.
He said he is also not keen on recommending a nationwide ban on small-scale mining, saying it will deprive small-scale miners the access to the country’s natural wealth.
Image credits: AP/ Aaron Favila