Mining may be banned in ecotourism areas—Aquino

President Aquino: Gov’t for mining ban in ecotourism areas

MANILA, Philippines—If adopted, the government’s draft policy statement on mining would lead to a mining ban in areas that would be reserved for ecotourism, President Aquino said Thursday afternoon.

Aquino confirmed that the concerned economic and environment clusters of his Cabinet had already submitted a draft policy statement that officials earlier said would be the guide in proposing amendments to the country’s mining laws and in drafting related executive issuances.

Aquino, however, said that the policy statement would still be presented to stakeholders such as mining industry leaders, environment protection advocates and local government units.

“That is the proposal; to preserve them as ecotourism sites,” President Aquino said when asked if mining would be banned in 78 such areas.

Aquino, nonetheless, said that the document he was presented on Wednesday didn’t include a list of these ecotourism sites, where mining would be banned.

“I’m as excited as you are to see the finished draft. But the proposal yesterday was… to engage these various stakeholders in the five points of what has been discussed by the economic cluster,” President Aquino said in an interview on Thursday.

Asked if the adoption of the policy statement would still take a few more months, he said, “It shouldn’t take months.”

“What they presented appears to be a policy statement. This will be vetted or passed through the various stakeholders. They asked for permission to go through a series of consultations with all of the stakeholders before adopting this final draft. So it’s not yet finished,” the President said.

Aquino added, “They will still have to discuss with the various entities that are very much concerned with the mining in our country. So that includes the ecological groups, the mining groups, the local government units and so on and so forth. So it’s still not a finished policy. It’s still a work in progress.”