DAVAO CITY – The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (Comp) criticized the organizers of the 2012 International Conference of Mining in Mindanao for excluding industry players from the event.
The 2012 International Conference on Mining in Mindanao, a congregation of anti-mining groups and individuals, is being held at the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU).
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and AdDu organized the event, which kicked off Thursday and will end today, Friday.
AdDu president Fr. Joel Tabora said they did not invite mining corporations in the two-day event because they simply do not want their presence.
Comp vice president for communications Rocky G. Dimaculangan said they earlier sent a letter addressed to Fr. Tabora, requesting participation to the conference, but the group did not receive response.
"We do understand your anxieties and your genuine concern for the protection of our environment and our people and we share the same concern particularly on how we can efficiently utilize our resources for the betterment of our country and citizens," the chamber said on its letter.
The chamber also stressed the importance of multi-stakeholder dialogues.
"At this time, we believe we should be engaging with various groups in order to understand the perspectives of others on the mining industry as we recognize that in moving forward, we need to appreciate each other's concerns, respect views and opinions because in the end, we know that we can work together on commonly shared values," the letter reads.
Tabora admitted having received requests from mining companies, including Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), to attend the conference but the organizers turned them down.
He said he sees no reason for foreign-backed mining company to join the conference.
"I have been receiving calls, texts messages about their intentions but I told them no," Tabora said.
Tabora said educating the public on what they need to know about mining projects is one of the steps to counter mining giants in Mindanao.
Foreign scientists and researches on mining graced the conference along with representatives from both the private and public sectors.
Dr. Catherine Coumans, Dr. Robert Goodland and Clive Wicks, guest speakers, are known for their staunch opposition to mining in the Philippines.
Goodland talked about Tampakan Copper-Gold project in South Cotabato, a project of SMI.
Despite their absence in the mining conference, several firms still made their presence felt in Davao City through a separate press conference.
Text messages also circulated about the plan of the mining sector to stage protest outside the Ateneo Jacinto campus to express their opposition to the holding of the conference.
A similar forum was also organized by pro-mining group at the University of South Eastern Philippines late Thursday.
Mindanao has the largest resources and reserves inventory in the country of copper at five billion tonnes, gold at 3.4 billion tonnes, aluminum at 292 million tonnes, and iron at 411 billion tonnes, the Comp said. (Ben O. Tesiorna and Jereco O. Paloma of Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
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