Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza yesterday urged mining companies to work with church, local government and non-government organizations to make sure that benefits derived from their operations can improve the standard of living of ordinary citizens.
"My mandate is very clear. When President Arroyo appointed me as DENR secretary, she reminded me to make sure that the benefits of the country’s natural wealth will reach the ordinary man,’’ Atienza addressed members of the Philippine Chamber of Mines (PCM) in a meeting at the Manila Hotel last Tuesday.
He said that if there is anyone who should benefit first from the reviving mining industry, a potential big dollar earner for the country, it should be Juan de la Cruz whose cooperation is crucial to the success of any mining venture.
If handled properly, he added, mining can give a tremendous boost to the country’s economy.
PCM president Philip Romualdez said that producing mining companies remit millions of pesos in taxes to the national treasury equivalent to 2 percent of their gross output.Of the amount, 60 percent are being remitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue as excise tax and the other 40 percent are remitted to the local government as local tax, according to Romualdez.
DENR 2006 records showed that Lepanto Mining in Benguet paid a total amount of P170.8 million in taxes; Philex, also in Benguet, paid a total amount of P1.08 billion; and Rio Tuba in Palawan, paid a total of P442 million.
Romualdez said that mining activities in the country are in various stages: some are in the exploration stage, others are in the processing stage, some in the construction stage, and the rest – around 20 to 25 projects – are in the near development stage.
Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) records showed that of the country’s total land area of 30 million hectares, around 9 million hectares representing 30 percent of the total land area have high potential in mineral deposits and only approximately 2 percent are covered by mining permit.
"We are optimistic that during Secretary Atienza’s stewardship of the DENR the benefits of mining will be felt by every Filipino, that jobs will be generated and harmonized and mining productivity will benefit the country,’’ Romualdez said.
The PCM officials for their part assured the DENR chief that they would support the present administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo by complying with the environmental law and the implementing rules of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.
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