Monsod: Mining not proven to be a catalyst for economic growth
By Bong D. Fabe, InterAksyon.com
August 4, 2012

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Claims of mining proponents that the industry has the potential to be the country’s catalyst for economic growth and, thus, address mass poverty have never been proven.

“The role of mining is always described as ‘potential’ because mining has never played a major role in our development, even during the mining boom of the seventies and early eighties,” lawyer and civil society leader Christian Monsod said during a forum on Executive Order 79 at the Archbishop Patrick Cronin Formation Hall here recently.

Although, according to the book, “Investing in ASEAN 2011-2012,” produced by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines possess at least US$1 trillion in untapped mineral resources, Monsod explained that “most of the mining in our country, after 50 years, is still extract-and-export-ore activity and there is no significant industrialization footprint based on our mineral resources. Not surprising, since the mining companies have to protect their downstream plants or those of their partners abroad.”

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