Philippine mining laws, policies not clear and strong enough, says expert
source:
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—An international environmental expert said
mining companies get away with environmentally destructive practices in
the Philippines because the country’s laws and policies on mining are
not clear or strong enough.
Clive Montgomery Wicks, vice chair of the commission on
environmental, economic and social policy of the Switzerland-based
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), pointed to the
conduct of environmental impact statement, or EIS, as one example of how
mining companies can go around the law.
IUCN claims to be the world’s oldest and largest global environmental
network, with more than 1,000 governmental and non-governmental member
organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160
countries, including the Philippines.
Speaking at a mining forum organized by non-governmental
organizations here on Thursday, Wicks said that in the Philippines, an
environmental compliance certificate, or ECC, is issued by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources on the basis of an EIS
prepared by a company.
But studies have shown that mining companies do not identify the
possible ill effects or dangers posed by mining operations in their EIS.
“In Philippine mining, most of the mining companies are not
identifying the dangers or impact in the required Environmental Impact
Statement as well as remedies to cushion the impact of said dangers,” he
said.
Wicks said this is not the case with respect to international
standards, which require mining companies to identify dangers or impacts
on the environment posed by their operations and to identify
contingency or remedial measures the are to undertake, in what is called
an environmental social impact assessment, or ESIA.
He said to correct the weakness in the law, the government should put
in place a structure or one body that would specifically look into
mining and strictly enforce responsible mining policies to avoid the bad
impact of mining on the environment and people.
Elisea Gozun, presidential assistant for climate change, said at the
same forum that the government will be announcing new mining policies in
line with its economic development framework for sustainable
development.
She said Malacañang has commissioned a study group, which included herself, to work on the new mining policies.
“The study result and the recommendation is not yet in full, and I
could not yet divulge our recommendations, but rest assured it is in
line with the economic development program of the country,” Gozun said.
She admitted though that it was difficult for the study group to define responsible mining.
“The big challenge is how to translate responsible mining into
reality. All mining companies have claims of being responsible miners,
but issues and problems remain prevalent,” Gozun said.
She said the Philippines has better mining laws compared with other
countries but the problem is in the implementation and enforcement
aspect.
