ONE OF most impassioned statements of the President during his third State of the Nation Address was on mining.
He said: “To the mining industry, I say this once again and maybe for the last time, do not destroy the environment or compromise our resources; repair what you have mismanaged. Try to change [your] management radically because this time you will have restrictive policies. The prohibition of open pit mining is one. It is destroying my country. It is destroying the environment. It will destroy the world of tomorrow for our children.”
We urge the President to decisively clamp down on erring mining firms which had destroyed the environment and compromised our resources. He need not look too far, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources already has a standing list of erring mining companies.
The President only needs to revisit the list created by former DENR secretary Gina Lopez and determine whether the mining companies in the list had already undertaken measures to protect the environment and contribute to what the President has said, “what needs to be given to my countrymen.”
It should be made clear that the President made no distinction on which irresponsible miners are: whether large-scale or small-scale mining, the policy direction of the President is to preserve the environment and contribute to what the people truly deserve. Anyone operating less than this standard should be shut down and have its licenses revoked.
More than the payment of taxes, mining companies should also determine whether their activities are truly acceptable to communities within their mining areas. We have heard many times over the repeated complaints indigenous communities being displaced from their homes and farms in order to accommodate mining concessions. Consistent with the President’s pronouncements, the people’s lives should be front and center in any policy related to mining activities.
