Philex parades for indigenous peoples’ cause
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 Indigenous Peoples’ Month and the 20th anniversary of IPRA, or IPs’ Rights Act, where Cordilleran soldiers who had fallen while fighting terrorists in Marawi were also honored.
“We have always shown respect for the way of life of the IPs, especially those in areas where we operate and do other miningrelated activities,” Eduardo Aratas, manager of Legal Division at Philex Mining’s Padcal mine, in the Benguet towns of Tuba and Itogon, said last Oct. 30.
Having joined the parade, which started from the Igorot Park and snaked through the main thoroughfare of Session Road, as well as attended the formal ceremonies afterward at the PFVR Gym Sports Complex on Military Cutoff Road, 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 to 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 miningrelated taxes since 2011.
Politicians from the six provinces (Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Apayao, Kalinga, and Mt. Province) and two cities (Baguio and Tabuk) of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) took turns extolling the IPs and their lawful right to their ancestral domains embodied in the Constitution and the IPRA.
Created in 1987 by virtue of a peace accord, CAR is home to many ethnic tribes known collectively as “Igorot.”
Sr. Insp. Jonalyn Malnat, spokesperson of the Special Action Forces (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP), was in attendance to receive the plaques given by the NCIP, or National Commission on IPs, in commendation of the heroism of the eight Cordillerans – three SAF members and five from the Armed Forces of the Philippines – who had perished in the battle between government forces and terrorists in Marawi City.
Padcal mine’s host municipalities of Tuba and Itogon have always acknowledged Philex Mining’s fulfillment of its responsibilities, announcing, for instance, its payment 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 one 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 that P39 billion or 69 percent of its P56billion gross revenue over the fiveyear period of 2011 to 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 for this year P110.48 million for the various projects on social development, information dissemination and research to further develop the mining industry, bringing to P730.48 million the total budget that had been set aside for the said projects in the last 15 years.
During the entire 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.
The company has likewise planted more than 8 million trees in about 2,800 hectares of land at its MPSA 156, of which 2,129 has. are inside the said Mineral Production Sharing Agreement while 621 has. are outside of it. While it has a total of 5,010 has. under its MPSAs 156 and 276, Philex Mining utilizes only a 580-ha. area of these for its mining operations – 410 has. for mining facilities and 170 has. for residential and institutional use.
Health care is another area of focus for Philex Mining’s CSR, or corporate social responsibility. The company announced in August that it granted for this year health insurance to 620 individuals, together with their families, to the tune of P1.48 million, bringing to P3.4 million the total amount of coverage given to the IPs and other indigent residents in the outlying communities of Padcal mine over the past four years.
This means that Philex Mining shelled out P897,600 for the PhilHealth, or Philippine Health Insurance Corp., coverage of 374 individuals last year; P655,200 for 273 beneficiaries in 2015; and P366,000 for 183 people in 2014, when the project was launched.
Padcal mine has two barangays Camp 3, in Tuba, and Ampucao, in Itogon – for its host communities, as well as three neighboring villages, namely, Camp 1 and Ansagan (both in Tuba) and Itogon’s Dalupirip. These five barangays, with a total population of more than 27,000 in 7,896 households, are collectively referred to as outlying communities.
The company is mandated to allot 1.5 percent of its previous year’s total operating expenses for the current year ’s SDMP; Information, Education and Communications (IEC) campaign; and Development of Mining Technology and Geosciences (DMTG).
Of the total allocated budget, SDMP gets the lion share of 75 percent while IEC is given 15 percent and, DMTG, 10 percent.
A number of ethnic cultural prayers and a Cordilleran ritual, involving a native pig being butchered, were also held – led by a
mumbaki (native high priest) – in line with the celebration of the National IPs’ Thanksgiving Day.