Response to Chamber Of Mines (CoM) - 13 Feb 2012
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International organizations respond to statements made by the Chamber of Mines and Chamber of Commerce and Industry regarding a leaked draft executive order on mining reforms in the Philippines. The organizations argue that the mining industry's claims that the reforms will negatively impact investments and projects are unfounded. They believe the reforms are needed to ensure responsible mining and adequate returns to the Filipino people. The response criticizes the mining industry's opposition to proposals that would increase taxes and conduct total economic valuations of mining projects.
Response to Chamber Of Mines (CoM) - 13 Feb 2012
- 1. International organisations respond to Chamber of Mines and Chamber of Commerce and Industry Statement on behalf of MiningWatch Canada, Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks) and the Working Group on Mining in the Philippines-UK 13 February 2012 We are writing, as concerned international organisations, in response to press adverts and statements by the mining industry and their supporters regarding the ‘leaked’ draft Executive Order on mining (apparently titled “Institutionalizing and Implementing Reforms in the Philippine Mining Sector, Providing Policies and Guidelines, and for Other Purposes). The Chamber of Mines (COMP) and associated advocates, including the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), are pressuring the Office of the President with unsubstantiated accusations that the proposed changes “will drive away future investments in the industry and imperil existing projects”i and that it “would unduly delay all on-going projects, stop short all exploration activities, as well as the issuance of new mining permits.”ii This seems to be more of the same alarmist rhetoric that has been recycled by these organizations on a number of occasions over the years. The industry claims it is for responsible mining, and yet when measures are proposed that would ensure responsible mining the cries go up that they are unfair and uncompetitive. It is worth looking at some of the objections raised. One article notes “there is a proposal to increase taxes on the extractive industries … large-scale miners feel it will make the country uncompetitive in the race to get top-grade mining investors.”iii In reality, many countries receive, or are negotiating, a far greater return in revenues from mining than the Philippines receives. And, as was made very clear at the recent International Conference on Mining in Mindanao in presentations by representatives from Revenue Watch and the Tax Justice Network, the Philippines stands out in global comparisons for having extremely low taxes and royalties from mining.iv The same news article argues that the real foot-print of the industry is limited, yet the experience of large-scale mining in the Cordillera, as elsewhere, is that river ecosystems and agriculture have been damaged in provinces far away from specific mining locations. Another news article criticises the body advising on the EO for being made up of environmentalists, such as the Department of the Environment!v Given the DENR is currently the department with ultimate responsibility for deciding on mining leases (already complicated by its dual functions in promoting mining as well as protecting the environment), it is absurd to criticise it as an 'environmentalist', and anti-industry body. Addressing the conflicting functions of the DENR is essential separating the authority responsible for monitoring and enforcement of environmental laws and making it independent from the authority that issues mining licenses. The same news article complains about an idea allegedly in the draft EO called TEV - or “total economic valuation.” It states that a total cost or benefit evaluation for a mining project is a bad idea, especially as other countries don't have such a policy. This is not true. In fact, the Canadian government has developed a similar tool to evaluate the value of ecological goods and services of Canada’s ecosystems in order to provide the government with the necessary “balanced information in
- 2. 2 their decision-making process with the true costs of development or conservation.”vi The United Nations is also engaged in a three year project to measure the 'Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity'. The United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment and the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative also acknowledge that for sustainable development environment costs have to be internalized.vii Conducting these analyses in the Philippines would expose the true cost to the Filipino people of the current and planned mining operations across large expanses of their vulnerable and bio-diverse natural resource rich archipelago. A TEV is absolutely essential in such a context, and must be complimented by a policy which considers the long term total social, environmental and cultural cumulative impacts and ensures that adequate returns are guaranteed for the Filipino people and the risks to their continued well-being are minimized. Without such policy reform, the term 'responsible mining' in the Philippines will continue to be a myth. The Chamber of Mines has resorted to full page adverts in response to the EO boasting of the purported economic benefits of mining. Yet, these economic benefits are a complete fiction when considered in the Philippine context. What the Philippines has experienced, (and will experience in a much more dramatic manner in the future if the industry is allowed to dictate the terms of engagement), is instead, major economic, social, cultural and environmental costs as evidenced by the fact that:- mining is the only economic sector in the country in which the poverty incidence, including income poverty, has risen over the last decadeviii while being the sector with by far the biggest social and environmental footprint;ix the current legislative framework results in minimal actual return to the Philippine Economy given that it is based principally on raw material export, excessively generous tax incentives and a policy which provides for the effective transfer of ownership of mineral resources to 100% foreign owned corporations who are allowed to repatriate their profits;x mining as it is currently pursued leads to massive lost opportunity costs as a result of its destructive effect on the country's bountiful natural resource base which, if protected, will provide sustainable income from agriculture, fisheries and tourism. mining on the scale currently envisaged in the Philippines is inconsistent with the Department of Agriculture target to make the country self-sufficient in rice by 2013, and the requirement to feed a population of 130 million people by 2030. This can't be achieved if open cast mines are allowed in water catchments such as Tampakan in South Cotabato. human costs are associated with environmental disasters triggered as a result of irresponsible mining in Mindanao and throughout the country; there have been serious violations of the civil and political, economic, social and cultural, human rights and environmental rights by the mining industry in the Philippines of local and indigenous communities which have been recognized and condemned by UN human rights and OECD monitoring bodies;xi there are significant and very long term costs associated with the post-mining phase that have yet to be adequately addressed such as guaranteeing that the mining industry is obliged to clean up and make safe all of the existing and future mining waste which poses inter- generational threats to the environment, sustainable livelihoods and human rights;xii mining is proposed on a massive scale (hundreds of mining tenements covering vast portions of the country) in the Philippines. This threatens the enjoyment of constitutional rights not just of local and indigenous communities, but of all Filipinos, both of this and future generations, to a balanced and healthful ecology including their rights to life, food, water and to the natural resources necessary to guarantee their continued survival and development.
- 3. 3 In conclusion it would appear that the Office of the President is attempting in this EO to imbue some meaning into the hallow words ‘responsible mining’ by seeking to ensure that mining does not violate the principles of sustainable development. The response of the industry is simply to cry foul. The present and future generations of the Philippines deserve better. For additional information contact: MiningWatch Canada: Catherine Coumans - catherine@miningwatch.ca Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks): Andrew Whitmore - comms@piplinks.org Working Group on Mining in the Philippines: Frank Nally (Missionary Society of St Columban) – wgmpuk@tiscali.co.uk Clive Wicks - clivewicks@googlemail.com Cathal Doyle (Middlesex University Department of Law) - doncathal@gmail.com Robert Goodland rbtgoodland@gmail.com i Businessmen Slam ‘Anti-Mining’ Policies, Business Mirror, 6 February 2012 ii Draft Order Imperils Mining Sector, Manila Standard, 6 February 2012 iii Clearing Mining Issues, Philippine Star, 8 February 2012 iv Davao hosts int’l conference on mining in Mindanao, Mindanews, 23 January 2012 v Nose Barrage, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9 February 2012 vi Canwest News Service May 25, 2010, http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Feds+price+Canada+nature/3065309/story.html ; See also - Government of Canada. http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/default.asp?lang=en&n=B31D9D94-1; The Ecological and Economic Foundations in Environment and Development Economics, http://www.teebweb.org/EcologicalandEconomicFoundations/tabid/1018/Default.aspx; http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/nterview-pavan-news-308155 vii Universal Ownership Why environmental externalities matter to institutional investors UNPRI UNEP Trucost (2010) http://www.unpri.org/files/6728_ES_report_environmental_externalities.pdf viii Multidimensional Poverty in the Philippines: New Measures, Evidence, and Policy Implications Arsenio M. Balisacan1 Revised Report: 8 October 2011 http://www.undp.org.ph/Downloads/knowledge_products/poverty/20111019%20- %20MPI%20Docs/Multidimensional%20Poverty-09oct2011.pdf http://www.slideshare.net/no2mininginpalawan/multidimensional-poverty-09-oct-2011 ix 2007 Report of the UN Special Representative to the Secretary General on Business and Human Rights E/CN.4/2006/97 22 February 2006 ‘The extractive sector is unique because no other sector has as enormous and as intrusive a social and environmental footprint’ http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/papers/JGR%20Interim%20Report%20to%20the%20UN.pdf x 1995 Mining Act and its Implementing Rules and Regulations xi UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Early Warning Urgent Action Procedure letters to the Philippine Government in relation to abuses of the rights of the Subanon of Mt Canatuan in the context of TVI Pacific Mining Project; http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/early-warning.htm OECD National Contact Point Statement in relation to Intex Resource Mindoro Nickel Project; http://www.piplinks.org/intex-resources- found-breach-international-guidelines see also recommendation of the UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights to the Philippines and UN Committee on Human Rights in relation to violations of human rights in the context of mining in the Philippines xii It is estimated that there are in the region of 800 abandoned mines in the Philippines see C Doyle, C Wicks, F Nally Mining in the Philippines Concerns and Conflicts available at http://www.eccr.org.uk/module-htmlpages- display-pid-52.html