| Philippines not yet capable of measuring real benefits and costs of mining |
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| Wednesday, 14 December 2011 | |
 A policy brief entitled "Is there a future for mining in the Philippines?" recently released by the Ateneo School of Government recommends a blanket moratorium on mining, recognizing the Philippine government's current inability to fully and accurately measure mining's economic benefits as against the social, cultural, environmental, and economic costs.
The recommended mining moratorium on mining applies not only to dormant or defective applications but also includes the suspension of processing of submitted mining applications.
In its introduction, the policy brief notes that "the government's limitations in accounting for verifiable economic benefits versus environmental, social, cultural and economic costs are so serious that we are effectively gambling away our future. We are mindful of possible adverse economic displacement in imposing a moratorium today, which is at worst temporary. However, the consequences of erroneous decisions are so huge and irreversible that it is better to take a longer and precautionary view. The global economic outlook for the mining sector favors prudence and patience because demand for minerals will continue well into the future, thus there is no real opportunity cost in deferring decisions on utilization of our mineral resources." At the same time, the policy brief outlines an action plan to achieve capacity in the governance of responsible mining. Ten key questions on mining and governance are tackled in the policy brief:
1. What is the nature of mining in the Philippines? The policy brief can be viewed and downloaded here. |