TUBA, Benguet – Philex Mining Corp. has signed individual agreements with three of its five outlying communities on the implementation of social projects for this year amounting to almost P83 million and which provides for each host and neighboring barangays to field a representative as part of a team that would monitor and assess the said projects.
Represented by Roy Mangali, assistant resident manager of the company’s gold-and-copper operations in Padcal, and the mine’s manager for Community Relations (ComRel), Aurora Dolipas, Philex Mining signed Monday, April 10, the memorandums of agreement (MOA) with three of its five outlying communities in the host towns of Tuba and Itogon.
“Regular monitoring activities (monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual) shall be jointly conducted by the Parties and corresponding reportorial requirements by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau-Cordillera Administrative Region (‘MGB-CAR’) are religiously compiled with for periodic audit purposes,” each of the three-page MOA says.
Victorio Palangdan and Ignacio Rivera, respective mayors of Itogon and Tuba, as well as the barangay chairmen present and Remy Ortega, community-affairs officer of MGB-CAR, all described Philex Mining as one of the most—if not the most—responsible miners in the region, citing its religious implementation of social and environmental projects and timely tax payments.
“I was the barangay captain of Camp 3, [Tuba], for 20 years, and I witnessed how Philex Mining had been helping the communities by implementing various projects on education, health, livelihood, and public infrastructure,” Rivera said in a speech during formal ceremonies, which also marked the turning over of the recently finished projects, held at the covered court of Camp 3 Elementary School, along Kennon Road, in Tuba.
Palangdan, who announced his intention to run for Benguet’s lone congressional seat by 2019, noted Philex Mining’s good governance, particularly its up-to-date payment of taxes, which have helped tremendously in community development.
For 2017, Philex Mining paid local business taxes to Itogon and Tuba amounting to a total of P15.3 million. In compliance with the towns’ respective revenue codes, Tuba received almost P8 million, or 44 percent of 1 percent of Philex Mining’s gross receipts for 2016, while Itogon got P7.4 million (41.25 percent).
Philex Mining’s Padcal mine has Tuba’s Camp 3 and Ampucao, in Itogon, for its host barangays, while its neighboring barangays consist of Camp 1 and Ansagan (both in Tuba) and Dalupirip (Itogon). These five barangays are collectively called outlying communities. Camp 1, Camp 3, and Dalupirip signed their respective MOA with Philex Mining, while Ampucao and Ansagan are set to sign their separate agreements with the miner at a later date.
Dolipas earlier said P82.9 million had been set aside by Philex Mining for the 2017 Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) for the five barangays. She added that the amount ballooned to P110.5 million to include the P16.6 million intended for the Information, Education, and Communications (IEC) campaign, and P11 million dedicated to the Development of Mining Technology and Geosciences (DMTG).
Philex Mining recently reiterated its commitment to continuously distribute fairly its socioeconomic projects among its outlying communities, but also has vowed to likewise extend its SDMP to other remote villages outside of its outlying communities but within the two host towns, as agreed upon with the local government units (LGUs) concerned.
Between 2003 and 2017, Philex Mining had allocated a budget of P730.5 million for SDMP, IEC—information dissemination—and DMTG, which is focused on the improvement of the mining industry through research-and-development activities. The annual total budget allocation for these three programs is equivalent to 1.5 percent of the company’s operating expenses in the previous year, with SDMP getting the lion’s share of 75 percent, followed by IEC at 15 percent and, DMTG, 10 percent.
From 2011 up to 2015, Philex Mining, through its lone operating mine, Padcal, contributed P10 billion in taxes to the government coffers, broken down as P6.6 billion in regular taxes and P3.5 billion in mining-related taxes. For the same five-year period, the company had a net income of P7.3 billion or 13 percent of its gross revenue of P56 billion, while 69 percent or P39 billion went to its shareholders, and P10 billion or 18 percent went to government.
By HENT
