TUBA, Benguet – Provincial and municipal officials are hopeful that the mine life of the Philex Mining Corporation in Padcal will be extended for several years considering the enormous contributions of mining to the development of its host and neighboring communities over the past several decades.
Earlier, Philex management announced that the mine life of its Padcal mine will be extended to 2028 from the previous projection of 2027.
Gov. Melchor Diclas underscored that mining had been contributing to the overall development not only of its host and neighboring communities but also of the country even if its estimated contribution to the gross domestic product is not that evident.
However, he said that the significant number of employees being employed, the economic activities and sources of livelihood that are being generated and the projects that are being implemented through the company’s social development and management program highlights the development in the grassroots level being enjoyed by the host and neighboring communities.
For his part, Itogon Mayor Bernard S. Waclin said that the contributions of mining to the development of the municipality had been significant aside from the real property and business taxes being annually collected from its operations that add up to the internally generated resources of the local government that is in turn being used to enhance the delivery of quality basic services and implement high impact development projects.
Waclin lauded the ongoing efforts of the company to look for other ore deposits within the peripheries of its Padcal mine to ensure the possibility of extending Philex’s mine life that will be greatly beneficial to the people of Itogon in the future.
On the other hand, Tuba Mayor Clarita Sal-ongan claimed that concerned stakeholders should work together to help the company extend its mine life because the contributions of mining to her town’s development has been significant over the past several decades and that its projected end of mine life will definitely result to significant losses of income for the local government and substantial benefits for the host and neighboring communities.
She admitted that Tuba had been benefitting from the SDMP projects being funded by the company that contributed in the realization of various initiatives that were not funded by the local government and concerned government agencies, thus, the end of mine life of the Padcal mine will surely affect the town’s internally generated resources that might affect the status of the municipality.
Itogon and Tuba are two of the five first class municipalities in Benguet that greatly rely on mining as the major source of income for the local government through the paid real property and business taxes aside from their share from the government’s national wealth tax.
Camp 3 punong barangay and former Tuba Mayor Ignacio Rivera and the representative of Ampucao punong barangay Freddie Altiga also share their sentiments against the projected end of mine life of Philex that will surely have an impact on the growth and development in the two directly impacted barangays from the company’s ongoing operations. By Dexter A. See
