Mining firms required to spend more for host communities
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has raised mining companies’ required funding for social development and management programs for communities hosting their projects to 1.5% of these firms’ operating cost from 1%, an official statement on Friday read.
The requirement was set by the department’s administrative order 2010-13, which Acting Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Horacio C. Ramos signed last May 5.
It takes effect on June 2, 15 days after it was published in some newspapers last May 18.
The 1.5% allocation is divided into: 1.125% for projects directly benefitting the host communities, 0.225% for information and education campaigns on the impact on such communities of environmentally friendly mining and processing practices and 0.15% for the development of such technologies to be used in specific projects.
Social development activities include education programs, health and other support services, as well as assistance for infrastructure development in the host community and adjacent areas.
Mr. Ramos stressed that the allocation is on top of royalty payment of mining companies to indigenous people, if the project is located in an ancestral domain. Such royalty amounts to 5% of gross profits from the mines.
“We have to ensure that the host communities get the benefits due them through projects and activities that have been agreed upon during the preparation of the company’s social development and management program,” the DENR statement quoted Mr. Ramos as saying.
Artemio F. Disini, chairman of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said in a phone interview on Friday that mining firms have no problem with the mandatory increased allocation for host communities. “We support this order,” he said.
