Rocky G. Dimaculangan, Director, Public AffairsMINING AND AGRICULTURE SIDE BY SIDE
By Rocky G. Dimaculangan, Director, Public Affairs
November 5, 2007



The agriculture and mining industries should be developed side-by-side with each other.  This was the message of Nelia Halcon, Secretary-General of the ASEAN Federation of Mining Associations, who was among the speakers in 2nd CEO-CFO Conference called Mindanao Forum on Mining held recently at the Catholic Centro Pastoral in Zamboanga City.  

Halcon was responding to the argument that mining contributes little to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that instead of promoting this “destructive” industry, the government should focus instead on agriculture.

“We need not neglect one industry to favor the other,” she stressed.  “The Philippines is endowed with rich agricultural and mineral resources that can catapult the country from economic doldrums.”

Halcon, who is also executive vice president of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, pointed out that the mining sector’s true contribution to the economy is not accurately reflected in the GDP.  “The mining and quarrying activities that are shown in the GDP are limited to the actual mining and sales of ore,” she explained.  “Once the ore is processed to, say, copper cathodes, that activity is already taken out of the mining and quarrying sectors.  The GDP component of that input from mineral resource development is accounted under the manufacturing sector.”

Dr. Efren Wee, a member of the Panel of Reactors during the Forum said that “mining should be given a chance,” given its potential contributions to the economy.  He added that the Philippines is no longer as competitive as it used to in the agricultural sector vis-à-vis other Asian countries.  But mining sector, he said, can put the country ahead of its neighbors.

“Chances are, the rice you just ate today for lunch was imported from Vietnam,” Wee told the audience, composed of representatives from the Catholic Church, government, anti-mining NGOs, the academe, and mining companies.

Meanwhile, Halcon explained that Philippine laws are adequate to ensure that mining companies conduct their operations in a way that will protect and preserve the environment.

The Forum was organized by the Christopher Lawrence Arnuco, Presidential Assistant and Vice-Chair of the Zamboanga Ecozone; by the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, and by the Archdiocese of Zamboanga City.