DAVAO CITY—The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines announced here that P700 million has been already allocated and set for distribution to local governments as their share in the mining taxes across the country.

Benjamin  Philip  Romualdez, president of both the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines and the Asean Federation of Mining Associations, told the Mining Consultative Forum that the amount was already allocated in the budget.

He said, though, that the amount represented the share due them from way back in 2006 and part of 2007, and got to know of the availability of the amount during the National Competitive Council meeting Monday called on by President Arroyo.

He said the disclosure came as he raised the concern of local governments and  other stakeholders in the mining industry over several concerns, including the delays in releases of the share of local governments in the mining operations in their places.

“I raised the concern of the communities, why there are resistance among local governments,” he said as telling the meeting in Malacańang. He said  local governments have been griping about the whereabouts of their share and the delays in the releases if there were. 

“They were saying that the operations have been there already but they were wondering why, three years after, nothing was happening. That’s why many communities are resorting to other forms, such as small-scale mining,” he said.

“In fact,” he added, “it is only now, in 2008, that they can claim their share in 2006  or 2007, when there is a budget for it only now.”

“So there is P700 million of that available for you today. And our personal goal of that is to make the releases faster and to make them better,” he said.

He said the lobbying of the Chamber of Mines was done in the presence of the officials of the Union of Local Authorities in the Philippines and the League of Municipalities.

He said  President Arroyo has also assured the Chamber of Mines that the government can process the claim from two-and-one-half months, to one-and-a-half months. “That’s the President’s commitment to me last Monday.”

Also in the same meeting, Romualdez said it has supported the proposal to allow the mining companies to pay their taxes “directly at the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), which is authorized to make the collections and to credit it as part of the national collection.”

But he said  the same account at the LBP should ensure the share, “not only of the National Treasury, but also of the provincial government, the municipal government up to the barangay level.”

He also disclosed that the Chamber openly supported the proposal of Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to impose an export ore permit. “Two days ago, the DENR secretary announced the requirement of the export ore permit. This has been met with some concerns.”

“But the chamber, for the record, would like to say that it is fully supportive of the idea of the secretary,” he said. “We supported it because we believe there is a need for some regulations, some monitoring.”

“There is too much unregulation already on ore shipments, and our obligation is to ensure that the national government and the Filipino people should get their rightful share of the benefits of mining,” he said.

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