Duterte rejects call to lift open-pit mining ban

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu said on Wednesday that a ban on new open pit mining in the country would remain in place, with President Rodrigo Duterte rejecting government panel recommendations to reverse it.

The ban, implemented by former environment minister Regina Lopez from April covers new projects including the $5.9-billion copper-gold Tampakan project in southern Mindanao which is the biggest stalled mining venture in the Philippines.

“The President sets the policy. The DENR will implement what the President deems as best for the country’s interest,” Cimatu told Reuters in a text message.

Open pit mining is allowed under the Philippine laws, the world’s top nickel ore exporter, where many mines use it to extract minerals. But Lopez said the process ruins the economic potential of places where it is carried out.

Duterte said late on Tuesday that he had rejected a recom-

mendation by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) to lift the ban because such mining is “destroying the soil and environment and no corrective measure is immediately (being) implemented.”

He added that while mining brings “good profit”, he “can let it go.”

The MICC, an inter-agency panel that makes recommendations on mining policy, is chaired by Cimatu and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

Cimatu said last month that he supported the removal of the open pit ban and that his agency would strengthen regulations to prevent any excesses by miners.

The ban would further halt development of the Tampakan project in the southern South Cotabato province. The project was first stopped after South Cotabato banned open-pit mining in 2010, and operator Glencore Plc quit the project five years later.

Lopez, who stepped down in May after failing to win congressional confirmation after 10 months in office, has said the project would cover an area the size of 700 soccer fields in what otherwise would be agricultural land.

Also covered by the ban is the $1.2billion Silangan copper and gold mine in Mindanao by Philippine miner Philex Mining Corp.

Mines that support rebels Duterte on Tuesday also threatened to shut down any mine that supports Maoist rebels waging a protracted guerrilla war to overthrow the government.

The Philippines has been in onagain, off-again peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the communist movement, since 1986 to end a rebellion that has killed more than 40,000 people and stunted growth in resource-rich rural areas.

In a speech honoring soldiers who fought pro-Islamic State militants for five months in the southern city of Marawi, Duterte said that attacks from the Maoist rebels had been on the rise, forcing him to end negotiations, and that he would declare the guerrilla group a terrorist organization.

“If I go against the communists, then everybody has to reconfigure their relationship with the New People’s Army,” he said, referring to the communists’ armed wing. “If you support them financially, I will close you down.”

Duterte said some mines were paying “revolutionary taxes” to the rebels in exchange for allowing their operations in remote areas to continue. He did not name any companies.

Mines in the Philippines, many with foreign partners, are digging for gold, nickel, copper, chromite and coal. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau said the country had estimated $840 billion worth of untapped mineral wealth as of 2012.

The rebels are also engaged in small-scale mining, like gold panning in the south.

Mining companies shared the president’s position, Ronald Recidoro, executive director at the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said.

“We do not condone any member supporting the New People’s Army through the payment of revolutionary taxes,” Recidoro told Reuters.

“This is clearly against the law and they really should be prosecuted if they are found to be supporting these organizations. And if closure is warranted, that is within the prerogative of the president.”

The Chamber of Mines groups 20 of the country’s 43 operating mines. Recidoro said some mining firm members had experienced some of their equipment being burned by the NPA because of their refusal to pay the taxes.

“I am fighting a rebellion... I have to build a strong army,” Duterte said, adding the military would next year acquire 23 attack helicopters to boost counterinsurgency capability.

Military spokesman Major-General Restituto Padilla said the Philippines already had approval for the purchase of attack helicopters but had not decided what type or where to source them.