Speaker Belmonte: No to mining ban
By Gil C. Cabacungan, Philippine Daily Inquirer
March 5, 2012

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Congress would amend but not revoke the 1995 Mining Act amid a deep-seated dispute between pro- and anti-mining advocates.

“There is a need to revisit the Mining Act because of the proliferation of small mines, some of which may not be operating properly. But we have no plans to ban mining,” said Belmonte in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Belmonte was reacting to the heated public debate between environmentalist Regina Paz “Gina” Lopez, who is pushing for a ban on mining, specifically in Palawan, and large-scale mining groups led by Philex Mining Corp. chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

Lopez and Pangilinan accused each other with lying in their respective stands on whether or not ecotourism or mining was the better alternative for Philippine development.

In the same forum, the director of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, Gerard Brimo, said large-scale miners should not be blamed for the environmental destruction, arguing that they spend millions to rehabilitate their old mine sites and pay millions of pesos in taxes and royalties to the government

Read full article @ newsinfo.inquirer.net