Duterte wants ban on open pit mining to stay

MANILA, Philippines — The ban on new open pit mines in the Philippines will remain in force after President Rodrigo Duterte rejected an interagency panel’s recommendation to lift it.

Last April, former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, who led a 10-month campaign against the mining industry, fired shots at the sector after she issued an order banning all prospective open pit mines in the country.

In a media interview on Tuesday, Duterte said he had not accepted a recommendation by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council to lift the ban, arguing that while mining brings “good profit,” he “can let it go.”

“I don't want to that because it is destroying the soil, the environment. And there are no immdeiate corrective measures,” he said in Filipino and English.

“‘It would not be so bad if I see a scraped area, and when I go back there to visit the place and I could see a lot of trees growing and the environment corrected of its destruction,” he added.

“How much do I earn from the taxation? About P70 billion a year? I can let it go.”

'Mining finances NPA' 

The firebrand leader then threatened mining companies with closure as he accused them of financing the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“It’s almost a public knowledge that mining companies are contributing to the taxation of the NPAs thereby giving them also strength, money to buy arms, and bullets and all in their desire to topple down the Republic of the Philippines,” Duterte claimed.

Mining experts have already warned that prohibiting open pit mining in the country may affect the energy supply nationwide.

Open-pit mining remains an internationally accepted method for mining.

In the Philippines, the practice is legal under the Mining Act of the Philippines. The Constitution even gives the state the duty to explore, develop, and utilize the country’s mineral resources.

Among the biggest prospective open pit mines are the $2-billion Pangilinan-led Silangan mine in Surigao del Norte and the $5.9-billion Tampakan project in South Cotabato, dubbed as potentially the country’s biggest foreign investment and believed to be one of the largest gold prospects in the world.

In October, the MICC called for the termination of the ban issued by Lopez after a majority of the panel voted “to lift the ban provided that mining laws, rules and regulations are strictly enforced.”

Following Duterte’s rejection of MICC’s calls for the lifting of the ban, incumbent environment chief Roy Cimatu said he will obey the president’s orders.

“The President sets the policy. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will implement what the President deems as best for the country’s interest,” Cimatu told Philstar.com.