TUBA, Benguet – Philex Mining Corp. and the host towns of its Padcal operations, in this province, have vowed to enhance cooperation on how mandated social projects are implemented, with the former consulting with the respective municipal governments and the latter lending its technical expertise to the miner.
“The municipality is very much willing to help Philex in the implementation of public infrastructure projects,” Victorio Palangdan, mayor of Itogon, said Wednesday night in a forum held at The Powerhouse, of Baguio Country Club, in Baguio City. “I think you also need to consult with the municipality regarding your free health-care services and scholarship grants.”
Palangdan, together with some Itogon councilors, attended the dinner forum hosted by Philex Mining where he also pushed for a wider coverage of the company’s Social Development and Management Program (SDMP), as well as the inclusion of more college students in its scholarship grants.
Philex Mining hosted a separate dinner for Tuba Mayor Ignacio Rivera and his councilors in the same venue on Oct. 5, where the local government officials called for an increased focus on various projects involving education, such as scholarship grants, and health-care services like medical and dental missions.
“The way we plan this year for our SDMP is different from last year’s, so we could further our efforts toward achieving sustainable development,” Manuel Agcaoili, SVP at Philex Mining and Padcal resident manager, said. The planning and implementation of SDMP, he added, needs to be coordinated with the municipality in addition with the respective barangays.
While stressing that government regulators require miners to implement SDMP only in outlying communities—both host and neighboring villages—Victor Francisco, VP for Environment and Community Relations (ComRel) at Philex Mining, said “we should ask the MGB [Mines and Geosciences Bureau] regarding this.”
He was responding to Palangdan’s request to include the rest of villages within his municipality as benefactors of SDMP—which involves the planning and implementation of the different social projects on health, environment, livelihood, and public infrastructure—not just the miner’s host and neighboring barangays of Ampucao and Dalupirip, respectively.
MGB, a government body under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that regulates the mining industry, requires a large-scale miner to spend within next year 1.5 percent of its total operating costs in the current year for SDMP, as well as for the information campaign on the benefits derived by stakeholders from its mining operations, and research activities leading to the development of the industry.
Rivera has asked Philex Mining for a clear identification and presentation of the planned projects under SDMP intended for the Tuba barangays of Camp 3 (host) and Camp 1 and Ansagan (neighboring). “We need your program of work for approval, so that we will have transparency in carrying out your projects,” he stressed.
He has also suggested that Philex Mining install billboards in the respective areas where it implemented its SDMP, in order to help inform the public about it and also serve as reference for better monitoring and rehabilitation of the projects involved.
Tuba and Itogon are two of the four first-class municipalities in Benguet, owing primarily to the significant economic impact of the operations of Philex Mining, whose 18 percent or P10.12 billion of its P56-billion gross revenue over a five-year period ended in 2015 went into the government coffers for taxes and contributions.
rom 2014 to 2015, Philex Mining accounted for 76 – 85 percent of P131.6 million of Tuba’s revenues, excluding its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), through various taxes. The town’s IRA, which is a local government’s share of revenues from the national government, was P161 million for the same period. For Itogon, the miner accounted for 45 – 57 percent or P131.53 million of its revenues other than its IRA.
adcal’s ComRel earlier said Philex Mining had set aside an SDMP budget of P82 million for 2016, another P33 million for its activities related to Information, Education and Communications (IEC) campaign, and P19 million for the Development of Mining Technology and Geosciences (DMTG).
By HENT
