IBA, Zambales—Given the choice between large-scale mining operations and small-scale mineral extraction, Zambales appears now to opt for the latter because it supposedly brings in millions of pesos in revenues to the provincial coffers.

Zambales Gov. Amor Deloso stated it thus on Monday as he dodged criticisms that the issuance by his office of small-scale mining permits (SSMPs) had resulted in the proliferation of illegal-mining operations in his province.

Deloso said that in just nine months since mining operations went full blast here, the province has earned some P128 million in revenues from extraction fees, ore-transport permits and other local mining-related taxes.

However, the huge collection, Deloso noted, did not come from giant mining companies like Benguet Corp. or DMCI, but from small-scale mining firms.

“How much more revenues can we get if big mining companies pay their share to our province?” Deloso told the media in an interview.

The governor explained his apparent preference for small-scale mining operations here after President Arroyo ordered him on Saturday to address complaints of “unhampered illegal mining” that has been blamed largely on small-scale miners in the town of Santa Cruz.

Earlier, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza proposed a moratorium on SSMPs issued by the governor’s office on the ground that these permits were “just being used by illegal miners to circumvent mining laws.”

Atienza had slapped one of these small-scale firms, A3 Una Mining, with a cease-and-desist order after it was found to have stockpiled some 200,000 metric tons of nickel ore valued at $4 million.

Some large-scale miners here claimed that A3 Una’s stockpile at barangay Bolitok in Santa Cruz was illegally mined since, by law, the firm could extract only a maximum of 50,000 tons per year.

The seaside stockpile, which was ordered confiscated by Atienza, was also blamed for having leached iron-rich ore into the sea after Typhoon Cosme battered the coast of Santa Cruz late last week.

Deloso, however, brushed off charges that illegal-mining activities had ridden the crest of small-scale mining operations in Zambales, adding that illegal mining cannot be equated with small-scale mining, which is legal under Republic Act (RA) 7076, or the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991.

He said that under RA 7076, small-scale operators in Zambales are allowed to prospect for ores, mine minerals, and sell their products to common buyers, mostly foreign takers.

“This is not illegal, as Atienza would want to project it,” Deloso asserted.

He also said Atienza should even consider small-scale mining operations in the province as a model, since it now provides livelihood to more than 1,000 residents.

“The essence and heart of a law is the welfare of the people,” said Deloso, who is a lawyer by profession.

“The welfare of the people is the highest law of the province, not the mining law of Atienza,” he added.

The governor added that RA 7942, or the Philippine Mining Act, which liberalized the mining sector to attract capital investments, should be amended to provide for an automatic retention of fees and taxes that should go to local government units in areas where minerals are extracted.

The law, which allows either a Filipino or a foreign corporation to enter into an agreement with the government for large-scale exploration, development and utilization of mineral resources, provides a host of financial incentives such as a 100-percent repatriation of investments in dollars, a 100-percent remittance of earnings in dollars, freedom from expropriation and double acceleration of depreciation costs.

The revenue-sharing scheme, however, provides collection of corporate and excise taxes, as well as duties and fees payable by the mining firms, only by the national government.

Deloso said that as a mining community, Zambales has not benefited significantly from the 75-year exploitation of the Acoje mines in Santa Cruz, the more than 50 years of chromite mining at Coto in Masinloc and the operation of the Benguet-Dizon gold mines in San Marcelino town.

He acknowledged, however, that Zambales still needs big companies to invest in the industry since small-scale miners lack adequate funds required by large-scale operations.

“But these investors should not just freely haul our minerals out and leave us with nothing. I will not allow that,” Deloso said.

FOREIGN businessmen in the Philippines asked the government to liberalize further the country’s “negative list” by opening up more professions and investment areas to non-Filipinos as a way to spur the entry of more capital and new technology into the country.

ONLY one bidder tendered a bid for the importation of 500 metric tons (MT) of rice out of the 141,440 MT the National Food Authority (NFA) auctioned off Tuesday.

THE damage caused by Tropical Storm Cosme to the local farm sector climbed to P1.58 billion, the latest report from the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

IBA, Zambales—Given the choice between large-scale mining operations and small-scale mineral extraction, Zambales appears now to opt for the latter because it supposedly brings in millions of pesos in revenues to the provincial coffers.