Philex Mines parades for Indigenous Peoples cause
TUBA, Benguet – Staying true to its commitment of support and respect for the culture of ethnic tribes, Philex Mining Corp. recently joined a multisectoral parade and formal ceremonies in Baguio City in celebration of the Indigenous Peoples’ Month.
“We have always shown respect for the way of life of the IPs, especially those in areas where we operate and do other mining-related activities,” Eduardo Aratas, manager of Legal Division at Philex Mining’s Padcal mine, in the Benguet towns of Tuba and Itogon, said.
Aratas highlighted Philex Mining’s religious payment of local and national taxes and its dogged implementation of the various projects on social development and environmental protection.
Between 2011 and 2015 alone, he stressed, Philex Mining had paid P10.12 billion toward the government coffers in the form of regular and mining-related taxes. Also, the company’s gold-and-copper operations in Padcal contributed 100 percent of the required regular taxes amounting to P6.6 billion and another P3.5 billion in mining-related taxes since 2011.
Padcal mine’s host municipalities of Tuba and Itogon have always acknowledged Philex Mining’s fulfillment of its
responsibilities, announcing, for instance, its payments of local business taxes amounting to P15.3 million for this year. In compliance with the towns’ respective revenue codes, Tuba was paid almost P8 million, or 44 percent of 1 percent of Philex Mining’s gross receipts for 2016, while Itogon got P7.4 million (41.25 percent).
“These taxes have been put into good use by funding a number of social-development projects, which trickled down to all the villages, including the remote ones populated by the IPs,” said Aratas, who also stressed that Philex Mining pays its royalties for the IPs through the NCIP, which is tasked to protect the rights of ethnic tribes.
Philex Mining also said P39 billion or 69 percent of its P56-billion gross revenue over the five-year period of 2011 – 2015 had been shared with its stakeholders while 18 percent went to government, and 13 percent or P7.3 billion made up its net income.
“To measure the share that Philex Mining, or the whole mining industry, is putting into the country’s economy, one should not look only at the sector’s direct contributions toward the GDP, but also to the hundreds of millions’ worth of projects that a miner has given to its host municipalities,” Aratas said.
For instance, Philex Mining allotted this year P110.48 million for the various projects on social development, information dissemination, and research to further develop the mining industry, bringing toP730.48 million the total budget that had been set aside for the said projects in the 15 years to date.
For 2016 and the first half of this year, Philex Mining had completed P40.34 million worth of projects—farm-to-market roads, bridges, electrification, and potable water systems, among others—in its host and neighboring villages. This represents 60.23 percent of the P67-million budget allotted for the various infrastructure projects under the company’s 2016 SDMP, or Social Development and Management Program. PR