Following the enforcement of Executive Order (EO) 130, which now requires the approval of new mining ventures in the region, the government now aims to perform its own mineral explorations throughout the country.
Director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Wilfredo Moncano, said that such a scheme would prohibit the sale of government-owned mining properties for an incorrect price.
“We also intend to do our own mineral exploration in mining assets held by the government, [through] PMO [Privatization Management Office], to provide updated geological information and evaluation of these mining assets so they could be disposed of at a better price,” Moncano said.
The Asset Privatization Trust (APT), which manages the privatization of government properties and companies, has been replaced by the PMO. It is controlled by the Department of Finance (DOF).
Moncano stated that the MGB's exploration activities would be focused on PMO properties that are free of legal issues.
He acknowledged that while no public bidding has been scheduled for PMO-owned mining properties such as Bagacay Mines, Basay Copper Mines, Maricalum, and Marcopper, there are still legal problems with some of these assets that need to be addressed.
MGB is the government agency in charge of regulating and developing the mining industry in the region.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) started lobbying for numerous government-led mineral explorations in the Philippines in 2019, a country that has long been known as one of the world's most mineralized.
“That’s the vision,” Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones said in an earlier report.
Untapped mineral reserves in the Philippines, which include nickel, gold, copper, iron, and chromite, are estimated to be worth $1.4 trillion.
However, MGB Assistant Director Danilo Uykieng believes the true figure is higher than the calculation.
Mineral mining was once undertaken by the Philippine government. “We had various explorations in the 1960s to 1990s. That was in partnership with JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency],” Uykieng earlier said.
JICA provided assistance to the Philippines in conducting a survey of possible mineral resources in eastern Luzon, Visayas, and Palawan. Finally, deposits were discovered in the Leyte, Dinagat, Siargao, Cebu, Bohol, and Southwest Negros areas of the Southern Sierra Madre.
According to Uykieng, the Philippines' annual budget for mining exploration is inadequate. Under the General Appropriations Act (ACT), MGB has a marginally smaller budget of P1.31 billion this year, relative to P1.36 billion in 2020.
MGB allocated a much larger budget, P118.18 million, to its natural resources and geosciences research projects under the 2021 GAA. This is more than the P59.38 million allocated last year.
Meanwhile, Moncano stated that the government hopes to release the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Presidential Order E0 130, which allows for the approval of new mining projects in the region, this month.
Moncano stated that a draft IRR for EO 130 would be released in the third week of this month, along with stakeholder consultation.
He stated that DENR officials had already given input to the report, which had been obtained by MGB's Policy Technical Working Group.
“The third revision of the draft will be presented again to the DENR undersecretaries next week,” he further said.
EO 130, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on April 14, 2021, revised the Aquino Administration's nine-year-old EO 79, which placed a ban on new mining ventures until new revenue-sharing regulations between the government and mining firms were passed.
The President issued an executive order directing authorities to rationalize the proposed revenue-sharing scheme while enforcing mining safety and environmental policies.
EO 130 further directs that current mineral agreements be reviewed for future renegotiation.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu stated in an earlier report that the government is considering placing further conditions on new mining applications, which will be included in the draft IRR of EO 130.
Moncano declined to say whether the IRR of EO 130 would have clauses regarding open-pit mining, which is still prohibited in the country thanks to a DENR administrative order released in 2017 by former and late Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez.
However, the MGB leader claimed that the government is considering lifting the ban on open-pit mining.