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DAVAO
CITY—The Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) and the other
parties promoting mining in Mindanao will soon form the
Mindanao Working Group (MWG), a special multisectoral
body, to enforce the locally agreed policy on “use it or
lose it” on dormant mining applications.
The
enforcement was aimed at revving up the sluggard
industry that frustrated even Mindanao offices of
government agencies at the snail pace of approvals of
the applications of mining operations.
“The MWG
will try to help the mining industry, and we hope that
it will have the police power to enforce our policy on
those which could not proceed with their schedule of
operation based on their application,” said Vicente Lao,
president of the MinBC. “It will enforce our policy to
the mining application.”
The MWG
was already discussed during the Mindanao Mining
Consultative Forum on September 18 to 19, although the
most-awaited guest, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza,
fell ill, and thus was unable to explain the side of the
DENR central office in the issues hounding the industry
in Mindanao pertaining to delayed approvals of
applications.
On his
behalf, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza gave his assurance
that the environment secretary “understands the
situation.”
“Some of
our laws have to be harmonized, including the law on
mining taxation,” he told the gathering of 400 chief
executive officers, operations officers, presidents of
mining companies and associations, government officials,
representatives and officers of religious,
environmentalist and other nongovernment organizations.
He said
that even if Atienza had attended the conference (he
failed to make it after falling ill), he would not be
able to give specific policy assurance and statements,
“because things undergo a lot of processing, and only
the President can make the final policy directive.”
Lao said
the MWG would be composed of the different mining
stakeholders, including government agencies, which, he
said, would give it the clout to force mining
applications to proceed with their schedule of
operations as promised in their applications.
“Holders
of mining applications must not be allowed to sit on
their application for purposes of fairness and equity to
others, which have also filed their applications,” he
told a regular Monday press conference at the Café Rysus
at SM City here.
“If they
cannot operate, they have to give way to the next, which
may have the same capability but has a determined
intention to really go into operation,” Lao said.
Edilberto Arreza, former regional director of the Mines
and GeoSciences Bureau, earlier told a preconference
news briefing in June that the Davao region—composed of
the three Davao provinces and Compostela Valley, and the
cities of Davao, Samal, Panabo and Tagum —has 34 major
projects, of which only two were being actively mined by
Holcim of France and Apex Mining Corp. in Maco,
Compostela Valley.
Only
four other projects were in their exploration
stage—North Davao Mining Corp. in Maco, Diwalwal Direct
State Development in Mount Diwata, Monkayo in Compostela
Valley; KingKing Copper Project in Pantukan, Compostela
Valley; and Pujada Bay Nickel Project in Mati, Davao
Oriental.
This was
aggravated by the low approval rate in the applications,
Lao said. |
