MICC review on mining firms move forward with budget

The review on mining operations that will be led by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) will finally move forward — with an initial budget of 120 million — after months of delay, which was triggered by several factors like the shift in leadership at the environment ministry.

A day after President Rodrigo Duterte made another tirade against miners, the MICC, which is now led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd and Environment Chief Roy Cimatu, proceeded to conduct its first meeting in months since former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Regina Paz Lopez stepped down from her post.

Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin, who heads the DOF Legal Services Group, said in a text message that the DENR and Department of Finance (DOF) will initially disburse a budget of 110 million each in order to finally start the review "soon.”

The MICC will particularly conduct a technical review on all mining operations in the country to address the concerns regarding DENR's earlier decision to shut down and suspend a total of 28 mine sites.

To recall, Lopez, before being bypassed by Commission on Appointments, was questioning DOF's move to ask for a budget of 150 million to bankroll the MICC review.

Environment Undersecretary Maria Paz Luna confirmed to Business Bulletin that Cimatu attended the MICC meeting for the first time, together with the newly appointed Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Wilfredo Moncano and other DENR officials.

In a separate text exchange, Moncano said his first MICC meeting ran "smoothly and that the discussion was intellectual.”

During the meeting, Agabin said the MICC already approved the terms of reference for the engagement of experts in the review.

The MICC meeting came just a day after Duterte didn't let the miners off the hook in his second State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA), warning to impose a higher tax on them moving forward.

Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) Legal and Policy vice president Ronald Recidoro told Business Bulletin that after the pronouncements, it will "definitely not be business as usual" for mining companies now.

"While the President does have the power to push for legislation he deems necessary to advance his vision, we hope that any future legislation will involve public hearings and consultations with the industry, so we can show or prove (ourselves) and show that we are already giving government its fair share," Recidoro said.

In the same light, Dante Bravo, the president of the largest single lateritic mine exporter in the world, Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc., said the flow of investments in the sector itself may stop once it became no longer viable for miners to continue to operate in the Philippines.

"It will be business as usual until there's actual change in the policy like raising taxes on new mining agreements or putting too many conditions on new mining agreements that will not warrant a good return on the investment," Bravo also said in a text message.

"If it is not viable, then, the investment stops. The market will just create other opportunities which, for instance, in the stainless steel industry to develop a technology that can produce a stainless steel without using nickel," he further said.