By Madelaine B. Miraflor

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is now taking a look at possible revisions that could be applied to the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, the main legislation that governs all mining and extractive operations in the country.

To be specific, MGB Director Wilfredo G. Moncano recently ordered the review of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Administrative Order (DAO) No. 2010-21, which was issued in 2010 to also implement a revised IRR for Philippine Mining Act.

A statement from MGB showed that Moncano’s directive is just the agency’s response to the mandate given under the Republic Act No. 11032 or “an act promoting ease of doing business and efficient delivery of government services, amending for the purpose of Republic Act No. 9485, otherwise known as the anti-red tape act of 2007, and for other purposes.”

The agency, tasked to regulate the mining sector, also wants to come up with a streamlined regulatory framework and requirements for the securing of mining rights, as well as a more simplified procedures for the mining applicants, contractors, permittee, or permit holders.

The said review and possible revision of DAO No. 2010-21 was agreed upon to discuss in the upcoming workshop of MGB to be conducted tentatively next month.

The meeting will be attended by the personnel of MGB’s Mining Tenements Division and the Legal Service Division as well as their counterparts in the Regional Offices (ROs).

The MGB is currently soliciting issues, comments, and suggestions from the ROs for the said workshop mechanics and outlines.

Right now, the Philippines ranks in the bottom seven out of 91 jurisdictions in terms of mining policies and last in terms of investment attractiveness in the Australia or Oceania region, the Fraser Institute 2017 survey showed.

Also, the Philippines is losing billions of dollars in potential mining investments because of the policy stalemate plaguing the industry.

Dindo Manhit, President of Stratbase ADR Institute, said while countries such as Australia and Indonesia managed to develop their mineral endowments as a strategic pillar of their economies, the Philippine mining industry has become stagnant, following the issuance of Executive Order No. 79 and DENR’s DAO No. 2017-10, which both effectively banned open pit mining.

“Our ability to efficiently and sustainably harvest the country’s mineral wealth potential, estimated to be worth more than a trillion dollars, just sitting underground and basically untapped, has been mired in prolonged legal and regulatory challenges,” Manhit said.

“To put in perspective just how much opportunity we are losing, a 2016 list of just 11 pending projects was estimated to total over US$23 billion in capital investments. Compare this to the official figures of the BSP on our total foreign direct investment from January to November last year which totaled only US$9.06 billion,” he added.

For his part, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) Chairman Gerard Brimo said EO 79 which imposed a ban on new mining applications and DAO 2017-10 made mining in the Philippines unattractive to investors.

Brimo identified three open pit projects that are now on hold due to the ban. These include the Tampakan Copper Project, King-king Copper Gold Project, and Silangan Copper and Gold Project which are all located in Mindanao.

He then pointed out that these pending projects could bring the National Government yearly revenues totaling P12 billion and a total of P1.5 b illion for local government. Concurrently, the projects will boost industry contribution to exports to 9 percent and total contribution to GDP to 1.5 percent.