The Dancing Elephant in the Crystal Shop: SMI
Fr. Joel Tabora, SJ

I thought the country was looking for a way of doing responsible mining. And that the Aquino administration was serious in pursuing this.

There are those, of course, who do not believe that responsible mining is at all possible in an archipelago like the Philippines. Where you have a tropical paradise of 7,200 islands with its rich environmental treasures, it is not responsible, they contend, to allow foreigners to destroy the paradise and take away the treasures for returns to the country that are far too small.

In its issuance of EO 79, the Aquino Administration seemed at least to acknowledge the financial problem. Under the current law, it acknowledged the Philippines’ cut in the value of the minerals themselves – “from zero to nill” according to SC Justice Carpio – was too small. By declaring it would issue no new mining permits to companies without Congress first defining a more rational regime of sharing, it seemed to be open to more rationality in mining.

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