BAGUIO CITY – Mining companies in the different parts of the Cordillera employed some seven hundred eighty-six female workers as part of their human resources in 2023, indicating an increase in the presence of women in the male-dominated industry.
Engr. Benigno Cesar Espejo, officer-in-charge of the Cordillera office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB-CAR), said that the region’s mining industry employed some 7,547 individuals of whom 6,761 are males and 786 females.
However, the figure was not dis-aggregated on how many females are in the top, middle management and rank and file.
Philex Mining Corporation has 2,331 male and 267 female workers while Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company has 1,651 male and 231 female employees.
Further, Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc. (ISRI) has 747 male and 92 female workers while for Benguet Corporation’s Acupan Mine Contract project and its contractors, it has 1,547 male and 92 female employees based on the MGB-CAR statistics.
The Luacan Itogon Pocket Miners Association, the first Minhang Bayan that is operational, declared that it has 602 male and only two female workers while Mountain Rock Aggregates stated that it has 12 male and 3 female workers.
For the contribution of the mining companies to the country’s economy, the mineral production in 2023 was pegged at PhP13.5 billion while mining investments amounted to PhP4.6 billion.
Moreover, the companies paid more than PhP503 million in taxes and fees to the government in 2023.
Espejo claimed that the data on the contributions of mining to the economy, among others, is still being finalized for the year 2024 and that the MGB-Car is expected to come out with the consolidated figures within the month.
For his part, Benguet Corporation administration department manager lawyer Froilan Roger Lawilao said that earlier reports on the alleged downtrend on the region’s gold production is considered to be alarming because mining companies are not able to take advantage of the prevailing high metal prices in the world market that makes their respective low grade ore viable in the market based on the current trends.
He claimed that the data presented to the public might have only come from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that warrants the concerned government agencies and lawmakers to revisit the government’s policy on the selling of gold.
Lawilao pointed out that gold buyers have proliferated in the different parts of Baguio and Benguet and that he is wondering where are they selling the gold that they purchase from miners in the said places, thus, the need for the government to revisit its policies to ensure that all the gold being sold in the black market will be accounted for by the government.
The Cordillera is one of the highly mineralized areas in the country where operations of large-scale mining companies have existed for several decades, mostly in Benguet. By Dexter A. See
