Palace allays fears on new mining policy

EDWIN LACIERDA: Draft has undergone changes. PDI PHOTO

Malacañang on Tuesday assured foreign and local businessmen and other stakeholders in the local mining industry that their concerns would be taken into consideration when the administration finalizes President Aquino’s executive order outlining the government’s mining policy.

Secretary Edwin Lacierda, Aquino’s spokesman, said that what the stakeholders were expressing concern about were provisions in a draft EO that had already undergone changes.

The Joint Foreign Chambers and the Philippine Mining Exploration Association Inc. recently expressed apprehension about the proposed new mining policy and urged the administration to consider the concerns of the industry.

“We understand the concerns of the Joint Foreign Chambers. What they had seen was the primary draft. That draft has already undergone changes,” Lacierda said at Tuesday’s press briefing in Malacañang.

“We have a working draft EO right now. The draft that they saw has gone through several changes and there is a working draft,” he said.

Lacierda said Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. would call a meeting with the mining stakeholders when the draft is ready.

“So I can assure the JFC that their concerns would be addressed and that the draft that they saw is no longer the draft that they were working on. It has been worked on. It has been improved,” Lacierda said.

Big local and foreign business groups had criticized a government plan to raise revenue by imposing new taxes on mining companies and reviewing their contracts, saying that the changes would scare off investors.

The government aims to spend more on infrastructure and social services to boost long-term growth and wants to increase mining taxes and review fiscal incentives for miners to ramp up revenue, Reuters said in a report Tuesday.

But the business groups, including the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CMP), said the proposed changes, in a draft EO awaiting President Aquino’s signature, would send the wrong signal to investors.

“Any review of existing contracts will be viewed negatively as it will appear to be an attempt to change the rules in midstream—definitely a disincentive to prospective investors,” said Rocky Dimaculangan, CMP vice president for communications.

The group was seeking a consultation with Aquino, he said.

Mining is a potential growth sector for the Philippines which has mineral reserves estimated at $1 trillion, Reuters further said.

Foreign investors are interested in pursuing ventures, but policy bottlenecks are hampering them, it added.

“There needs to be constancy of policy. The situation where companies are encouraged to invest at one time, only to have them see the rules changed at a later time, should stop,” Dimaculangan said in a statement.

The CMP, which represents large-scale miners, issued its statement after the Joint Foreign Chambers had described the draft mining rules as “profoundly disturbing.”