PGMA's Speech during the 50th Anniversary of the Philippine Mines Safety and Environment Association and the Annual National Mines Safety and Environment Conference

PGMA's Speech during the 50th Anniversary of the Philippine Mines Safety and Environment Association and the Annual National Mines Safety and Environment Conference

Centennial Hall, Manila Hotel, Manila (13 Nov. 2003)

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Secretary Bebet Gozun.

President Rodriguez; incoming president of the Chamber of Mines, Phillip Romualdez. I would like to also greet my other Cabinet member who's here, Secretary of Planning Romy Neri, and Congressman Maurice Domogan.

I would also like to greet the other leaders of the industry: Mr. Brown, Mr. Robins, Mr. Decini, Mr. Fujimura, Ms. Sandy Prieto-Romualdez, Mr. Callaghan. And all of you, leaders of the Philippine Mines Safety and Environment Association, congratulations on your Golden Anniversary! Congratulations, too, to your golden jubilee awardees! May they serve as exemplars of safety practices and environmental protection, and be the concrete proof that you can have mining, you can have jobs, and you can have concern for the environment at the same time.

And that is why first and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to confirm what our two speakers have already said, that our policy for the minerals industry is no longer just mere tolerance but active promotion of sustainable mining.

This is why, as President Romualdez said, I am the president to address your whole industry in a long time. Because for a long time, the policy has been tolerance. And if your industry is merely tolerated, why should a president bother to give you the time. But I bother to give you the time because I want to confirm the good news. This policy shift occurred shortly after I appointed a new Secretary of Planning, Romy Neri, and a new Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Bebet Gozun. That's why I wanted to make sure both of them are on stage with me tonight.

Your foremost advocate is the secretary of economic planning. And I was already aware of that when I asked him to join the government, my administration, because he already had a very good microeconomic program that I felt could supplement the macroeconomic gains I had made in the first half of my administration. And so I knew that if I would get Romy Neri as planning secretary, I knew that that would really mean a big push for the mining sector.

There were many though who said, "well, Romy is sure to push the mining sector because he's been very open about that because his beliefs have been very well known. He's written about them, lectured about them." but they said, "but the Secretary of the Environment is an environmentalist. So she will be... And she comes from the NGO group." and as Phillip Romualdez said, NGO is equated to anti-mining. But we are all gratified to find that the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources is very open-minded and modern in her approach to mining policy.

When I first interviewed her -- Bebet, remember? -- before I appointed her, before I announced her appointment as secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, we discussed mining policy. And she said that she believes that for the mining investors who from the very beginning do their social preparation rather that springing surprises on the community; if from the beginning they do their social preparation and engage the community, there is no reason why the investment will not succeed. And she has been doing that in her work, doing early social preparation for the mining investments. And though Mr. Rodriguez said that there's still no single mining firm that has come in on the ground. Actually, there are two investments in very advance stages now. And I hope therefore, they will be the first roots of our policy of pushing sustainable mining rather than just tolerating it as has been done in many years in the past.

After all, I'm aware of the big demand for copper, gold and nickel, and their great potential for creating jobs. And after all, creating jobs is the most important means of fighting poverty.

And after all, our historic problem has been the need for economic development to fight poverty. Because we are not yet a strong state, historically, our economic development has been slow compared to our neighbors. That's why it should be a source of pride to us that in the last two-and-a-half years, we did better than our neighbors. And in the first 6 months of this year, we achieved a 4.8 percent GNP growth rate, the sixth highest among the 21 economies of the Asia-pacific region, and the highest in our country since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

If about a year ago, I announced that policy shift to active promotion rather than mere tolerance, it was because, in these two years, more than two years of my presidency, I have been going through a learning curve. And I have gained the experience necessary to understand what we need to do in order to change society in a way that leads to economic development and the elimination of poverty, especially now with the Asian region starting to recover, our neighbors are starting to accelerate their growth again. And this time, we cannot afford to be left behind.

To really develop our economy and create a stronger republic, we need to change our system, to institute true reforms in our way of politics and our economy. And among the reforms I recognized we need to do is the reform of our mining policy.

Incoming President Romualdez said, that the national mineral's policy has been five years in the making, and still no sign of coming to a conclusion.

I am very happy to let you know tonight that on December 3rd and 4th, in the national mining conference, Bebet Gozun will unveil the national minerals policy. I will leave the details up to her. Otherwise, you will have no more main feature for your December 3rd and 4th conference. but I just want to say in general and confirm that it's my administration's policy to promote responsible mineral resources exploration, development and utilization to enhance economic growth in a manner that adheres to the principles of sustainable development.

I am merely being consistent with what I have been doing since I was a senator, because as senator, I have sought solutions to the concerns of the mining industry. And now, as president, we have started addressing your long-standing concerns. First of all, your concern for a holistic policy, and that is coming on December 3rd and 4th.

With regard to specific concerns, not just yours, but the concern of the community regarding your industry, we have acted, as Phillip Romualdez said, we have acted decisively on Marcopper and Diwalwal to end lingering fears of the community. In the case of Marinduque, of Marcopper, upon the request of the people of Marinduque, I released 20 million pesos of presidential funds to finance the environment and health study which will recommend the appropriate rehabilitation strategies for the areas affected by the Marcopper tailings spill.

And last year, with the help of the Chamber of Mines -- and I must thank them for it -- we firmly asserted government control in Diwalwal. As Phillip said, because he's very much involved in it, this ore-rich mountain shall be a good example of rationalized operations that allow big players, small scale miners and artesianal miners to co-exist.

The National Resources Mining Development Corporation was incorporated in July this year, precisely to promote the mining industry, and I appointed Dennis Belmonte as president. By the way, he's not the only mining man that I got into my government, there's also Teddy Taguinod who is now the chairman and CEO of the Public Estates Authority. But of course, that's not mining. It is our friend Dennis who is in mining. And well, what I can say is that -- is Mr. Murga also from mining? No, okay. Anyway, going back to Dennis. I feel he has done a yeoman's job of instituting in Diwalwal a new social order founded on mutual trust and confidence. The construction of an engineered tailings dam to arrest pollution, I understand, has already started. Thanks to the Chamber of Mines.

We want to make the area a showcase of our policy to recognize small scale mining as a formal sector and put an end to the negative impact of artesianal and unsystematic operations.

We've mobilized so many agencies to address this age-old problem in Diwalwal. There's the DND and the PNP to enforce law and order. Aside from that DSWD, DOH and other agencies have put up livelihood training, environmental protection, and public health programs for the most disadvantaged people in the area, especially the women.

Aside from addressing this very specific high-profile problems that somehow have contributed in the past to keeping the policy towards mining mere tolerance rather than promotion because this sort of gave mining a bad name, we've also addressed other concerns to push mining investments. And again, incoming President Romualdez mentioned some of them. But I would just like to stress that the environmental clearance certificate, which has been the bane of operation start ups, has had its processing time reduced significantly under the administration of Bebet Gozun.

Of course, aside from the national minerals policy, the other related framework for mining policy should be the mining act. And while we are waiting for the Supreme Court to come out with its rulings, we're in the process of harmonizing the mining act and the indigenous peoples right's act to facilitate applications of qualified investors. The supreme court has lately been coming up with important decisions on many issues that have been pending for a long time. And now, with the impeachment crisis over perhaps -- and also with the supreme court having disposed of several other long pending issues -- perhaps we can soon expect the supreme court to go back to addressing the pending great policy issues including the mining issue.

Not that I can speak for the Supreme Court, but if our impeachment crisis had lingered on and on, then it would have been an even longer wait. Thus, we can say that even the mining industry benefits from the three great branches of our government reaffirming their faith in each other and in a stable national future.

Aside from fundamental reforms, the impeachment crisis shows also that we need to unify as a people.

The Philippine Mines Safety and Environment Association knows the lessons of unity very well. Beyond advocacy of safety practices, your annual conference is a prime event because it affords every stakeholder in the industry a chance of learning and discourse, and above all, planning together for common advancement.

I congratulate you for what you have done, not only for your industry but also for our country. Bebet reminds me that during the great earthquake in Baguio and other parts of Luzon in 1990, it was your association that helped in the relief and rehabilitation of the affected earthquake communities. And with your snap -- safety network action program -- you are institutionalizing that support that you have been giving whenever there is a great disaster.

Indeed, your association has played, and I'm sure will continue to play a significant role in national development and growth.

And tonight, I ask the mining sector to help me, not only in creating jobs, not only in safety and in protection of the environment, help me also to start the healing process that will give you and the whole business community and the whole people of the Philippines a better environment in which to work, do business and live in.

Congratulations! Happy Golden Anniversary! And thank you.

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