Benguet villages benefit from mining operations

 TUBA, Benguet – Remote villages hosting the operations of large-scale mining companies nationwide will have a chance to accelerate their respective infrastructure and socio-economic growth following the ordered increase in the funds being allocated for social development and management projects (SDMP) starting next year, a key mine official of the Philex Mining Corporation said.

            

Engineer Libby R. Ricafort, Philex vice president for operations and resident manager, said the firm was in receipt of an order from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) that SDMP funds should be increased to 1.5 percent of the direct mining and milling cost by next year after the expiration of its earlier approved 5-year SDMP.

            

“Our host and neighboring communities will directly benefit from the increased SDMP funding and the expected increase in the volume of hard and soft projects that will be identified in order to help develop remote villages and improve the living condition of the people,” Ricafort, citing that its robust operations could be attributed to its strong partnership with the indigenous peoples living within its host and neighboring communities.

            

In 2008, Philex entered into a royalty agreement, the first of its kind in the country’s mining industry, with the indigenous Peoples Organization of AlangPukis, Sta. Fe, Sabian, Oliba and Luacan (IPO-APSSOL) which allowed the group to have a 1.25 percent of the firm’s gross output as its royalty share for a period of 25 years.

            

Lawyer Eduardo Aratas , Philex legal division chief, said over the past four years since the royalty agreement was signed, the indigenous peoples group was able to get around P425 million as royalty share from the mining operations.

            

However, he added the company was able to implement more than P200 million worth of SDMP projects to the different host and neighboring communities of the mining company over the past four years which were part of the royalty a share of the indigenous peoples pursuant to the provisions of the royalty agreement.

            

Under existing rules and regulations on the grant of SDMP projects, mining companies are required to spend 90 percent of 1 percent of their direct mining and milling cost for various hard and soft projects that will accelerate the infrastructure and socio-economic development of their host communities.

            

With the new order increasing the allocations for SDMP projects to 1.5 percent of the company’s direct milling and mining cost, Aratas explained more projects will be implemented for the development of communities that will translate to improved living condition of indigenous peoples thereby resulting to increased economic activities for the local residents in preparation for their sustained living condition even beyond mine life in the year 2020.

            

“We will continue to infuse more impact projects to our host and neighboring communities by next year and the new lifespan of our SDMP so that we will be able to instill to the people living in far flung communities the value of sustaining their existing sources of livelihood even beyond mine life,” Aratas stressed, citing that Philex wants to sustain its identity as a world-class mining company that sincerely practices responsible mining geared towards the sustained growth of its host and neighboring communities in a bid to spur rural economic growth for the sake of poverty alleviation.