"NGOs call for higher taxes on mining firms so Philippines can benefit from transition minerals boom", 10 October 2024

A coalition of civic society groups is pushing for the Philippines to introduce a heftier tax on mining transition minerals.

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“Since we are under global pressure to mine our minerals, we must first increase taxes on mining businesses if the country is to benefit from the sector,” Cielo Magno, president of nonprofit Bantay Kita....

The tax rate proposed by the mining fiscal reform bill in the Senate in September is too low, said Magno, associate professor in the school of economics at the University of the Philippines and an outspoken critic of the mining industry.

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But a bulk of the demand for nickel is for electric vehicles, not renewable energy generation, which is “not rooted in the requirements of national and community development, but is driven by global demand and profit,” said Aaron Pedrosa, secretary-general of Sanlakas, a party-list organisation representing workers from agriculture, transport, mining in the Philippines. 

Pedrosa cited how mining-affected communities will be more vulnerable to climate risks as their water, food, and local ecologies are disrupted by mining operations. This year alone, a massive landslide hit a gold-mining community in Davao de Oro, which left 93 dead in February, while homes were destroyed in a town in Surigao del Nortethree months after. 

“The Philippines is a particularly climate-vulnerable country, so it is in our interest not to allow corporations to make money out of our misery,” Pedrosa added.