The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) is entering 2023 with renewed hope and optimism.
However, COMP chairman Mike Toledo underscored the need for stable business policies to rejuvenate the mining industry.
“We, nonetheless, remain steadfast in our position that for our industry to grow, our country requires stable business policies that do not change mid-stream,” COMP said in a letter to its members.
“These policies include a fiscal regime that ensures the Philippines’ competitiveness vis-à-vis other mining jurisdictions worldwide,” COMP added.
COMP said the lifting of the ban on open pit mining and the moratorium on new mining projects in 2021, the renewal of the Free Trade Area of the Americas of Oceana Gold, the highly publicized pronouncements of support for mining by Cabinet officials of the Marcos Administration, as well as the global demand for mineral products that will help address climate change, augur well for the industry.
“We thus expressed our strong opposition to the passage in September of a House bill that would have rendered the country’s mining tax structure even more onerous than that currently being levied on FTAAs and put into question the stability of our policies, which is most detrimental to attracting foreign investments in such a capital-intensive industry,” the COMP said.
“We also called on Congress to revisit the said bill and allow for full and meaningful consultations,” it added.
COMP said it has been working closely with both legislators and Department of Finance officials “who we believe have seen our viewpoint on the matter.”
It was named chair of both the steering committee and the communications sub-committee of the National Unified Information Education Communication Program, an initiative of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau that seeks to improve the public perception of mining.