A NEW mining policy framework will soon be submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for approval and subsequent issuance as an executive order (EO), a senior Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) official said.
Environment Undersecretary Carlos Primo David told a policy forum on Thursday that the proposed framework would focus on procedural issues but also include provisions aimed at addressing concerns such as royalties for Indigenous peoples (IPs).
“This is going to be an EO that we will be presenting within the month,” David told the forum.
The proposed policy also aims to streamline the application process for mining permits — a continued concern for investors — and improve transparency throughout the evaluation process.
It will also present an enhanced approach to royalties for IPs, which currently lack a defined maximum limit, David said.
“We are presenting to the president … at least a cap,” he said.
The new framework will also provide clearer guidelines for both investors and local governments.
To expedite the permit application process, the DENR has implemented a digital system in several regions including the Cordillera Administrative Region and Davao.
The system will be expanded to cover all regions by next year, David said.
“When you start to evaluate applications, there are always technical [and] legal aspects to it,” he continued, noting that this is where delays can occur.
“We want to eliminate that and be able to track where these permits are getting stalled because now we see it.”
While the proposed EO will address certain procedural issues, David said that more comprehensive legislative changes were needed to amend the fiscal regime governing mining operations.
Any changes to existing laws will require additional legislation, he added.
“The fiscal regime will have to be an amendment of the law because it is trying to correct something that is in the law. The EO can only correct our interpretations, our procedures in the Executive branch…”
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