PRESIDENT Aquino is not inclined to stop large-scale mining and has ordered Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and other officials concerned to formulate—in consultation with all stakeholders—a mining policy to guide mining operations and ensure the protection of the country’s environment.

In an interview on Thursday in Palo, Leyte, where he keynoted the 67th anniversary of the Leyte Gulf landings, Mr. Aquino said he wanted a policy that would allow large-scale mining operations but not at the expense of the environment.

While there are those who want a total ban on mining, the President said if this were done, what would be left are small-scale mining operations that are more difficult to regulate.

“The solution there should be to allow large-scale [mining] with the capability not only to correct any environmental damages, but to avoid such from happening to begin with,” he said

“I have tasked Secretary Paje, the LLDA [Laguna Lake Development Authority] Administrator Neric Acosta, who is the environment expert in our party, [Mary Ann Lucille] Sering of the Climate Change [Commission] and Bebet [Elisea] Gozun, our adviser on ecological matters—to sit down, craft the mining policy that will [merge] two things at the end,” he said.

The President said he wants regulations in place to protect the environment while “maximizing revenues for the government” and will “preserve our potentials, especially in eco-tourism.”

The issue against mining was highlighted anew with the killing of Italian priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio in Arakan, North Cotabato, on Monday. Some Catholic bishops were claiming that Tentorio’s anti-mining stance may have triggered his murder.

Mr. Aquino said the administration’s mining policy would be formulated in consultation with “all stakeholders” to “reach a consensus” on how to run the mining industry in the Philippines.

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