Government wants small-scale mines included in PH-EITI
The national government is proposing the inclusion of small-scale mining operations in the Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PH-EITI) to better gauge the sector’s contribution to the country’s economy.
Both the Department of Finance (DOF) as well as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) agreed that small-scale miners have to be included in the PH-EITI along with large mining operations.
Finance Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin explained that small-scale mine sector is a large grey area in the mining industry, citing there are no official data yet on their actual share to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
He also revealed that the government has no official records of the actual revenues they generate annually and if they are properly taxed by the Bureau of the Internal Revenue (BIR) and local government units (LGU).
However, the finance official admitted that capturing the small-scale mines, or those sites with an annual output of not more than 50,000 metric tons, will be a challenge for the government, adding it would require additional manpower and financing.
“It will be probably require spending more resources, but between that and getting a complete picture, we’d rather get a complete picture… It’s worth a try. If it’s really difficult then we would probably have to adjust but now the idea is also to include the small scale,” Agabin said.
For his part, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu agreed the need for enhanced monitoring of smallscale mines, adding he is supporting the planned inclusion of the sector in PH-EITI.
According to Cimatu, these miners also "contribute sizable share in the economy."
Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) Executive Ronald Recidoro, meanwhile, said that it will be very hard to include small scale miners in the initiative as a lot of these operators have not been formally registered with the government.
"I think it's necessary that they will be included so we get a big picture. They will not have a reason to report… We have to break that cycle. We need to make small scale mining part of mainstream,” Recidoro told reporters on the sidelines of the PH-EITI forum yesterday.
“The problem is logistics, it's very hard to get data because number one, they're not actually part of mainstream society so they don't pay taxes or do social development work or do environmental protection work," he added.
Right now, the DENR is moving towards the declaration of Minahang Bayan areas where small-scale miners operate.
As a start, 15 sites have already been declared as Minahang Bayan areas.
Initial results from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) revealed that nine Minahang Bayan applications covering areas situated in Regions V, VI, VIII, X, XI, XII and XIII, have already been issued the necessary pre-declaration clearance by the DENR.
These are in addition to the six previously declared Minahang Bayan projects covering areas situated in Regions IVA, VIII, XI and XIII, during the past administrations.