Concept Paper on Mining in Palawan

Design and Concept

DRAFT PROPOSAL

1. BACKGROUND                                                                                            .   

Mining in Palawan is a divisive issue. It always encourages passionate debates and polarized thinking. A consensus is often hard, if not impossible, to obtain.

In the past two months, two mining forums have been held in Puerto Princesa. The first one, “Forum on Responsible Mining in Palawan,” happened on September 29. It was sponsored by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association-Palawan Chapter. The second called “Symposium on Responsible Mining Towards Sustainable Development” and held on October 22, was spearheaded by Palawan State University-World Bank Knowledge for Development Center. Both attempted to present a balance of issues and evidence on the mining industry.

During its 142nd meeting on September 28, the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) directed its Staff to conduct a forum which can guide the policy direction on mining industry in the province. The forum is only an initial step towards establishing comprehensive regulatory mechanisms for the mining industry.

In a recently concluded Training on Valuation of Environment and Natural Resources for Palawan , a workgroup composed of representatives from different organizations identified several perceived policy failures and market failures in the mining industry. These include the national policy on revitalizing the mining industry which may contradict SEP objectives. There are property rights issues, such as the overlap of mining tenement applications in the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) level and reports of “dummy entities” operating as small-scale mining firms. There are also reports of over-extraction of mineral resources and small-scale companies not really small-scale in operations. Other perceived issues include government policies granting tax incentives to mining companies (e.g., tax holidays) and high costs of rehabilitation with undetermined results.  

The common negative environmental and social impacts associated with mining are those pertaining to the threats to water and food security and to habitat and biodiversity. The environmental impacts include deforestation, increased risk of geologic hazards, loss of productivity of agricultural areas and adverse effects on fisheries, micro-climate change, loss of wildlife species, pollution from waste materials, and loss of aesthetic and tourism values of natural and wilderness areas. The potential social impacts are health problems and the displacement of local residents and indigenous peoples and division or conflicts among themselves.

To counter the above issues, mining proponents are advocating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and adherence to environmental impact statement (EIS) system. Their strategy is the mitigation and prevention of major environmental impacts and the active pursuit of development in the countryside.

Mining companies are willing to shoulder the high private costs of operating a mine that they believe brings significant gains that offset or compensate for unwanted impacts. The high market value of metallic minerals (as of now, nickel and chromite commands a good price in the world market) means that the industry will be very profitable for the time being. Among the benefits of mining in Palawan are government revenue from taxes, increased employment rate, social development (through construction of facilities and infrastructure like hospitals, electricity, water, schools, and roads), and environmental enhancement projects of the mining company.

These multiple issues are attributed to mining in Palawan. The pursuit of mining guarantees a cascade of development ventures in an area and acts as a driver of greater economic activity and prosperity. It answers the immediate need for social uplift of impoverished communities. Although benefits from mining are clearly apparent, the serious environmental and social costs bring unease to several stakeholders. This is because the serious impacts are usually long-lasting and even irreversible.

 Clearly, there is a need to delineate mining issues and conflicts in order to inform and guide policy and decision makers. A well-rounded deliberation on the sustainability of the industry in the Palawan local setting will be timely.

In compliance with the directive of the PCSD, the PCSD Staff, in cooperation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) and the Mineral Development Council (MDC), is organizing a Mining Forum that will contribute to previous efforts and agenda. It is a new attempt to document and to chart what are the stakes of mining in the province of Palawan and, ultimately, what are at stake for its present and future peoples.

2. OBJECTIVES                                                                                                .

The proposed Mining Forum will have the following objectives:

1. Survey sectoral perceptions on mining in Palawan province;
2. Provide an open venue for expressing varying points of view on mining and for weighing in the pros and cons of mining;
3. Highlight the existing and foreseeable issues and conflicts that need resolution;and
4. Identify common grounds where stakeholders can work on in furthering sustainable development with respect to mining.