23 June 2022

Alyansa Tigil Mina is deeply alarmed, but genuinely not startled, that the government has withdrawn from the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). This is a concrete example of the government’s betrayal to its environmental and transparency commitments and its continuing patronage to irresponsible mining in the Philippines.

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Our alliance does not share Dominguez’s optimism that the Philippines will “continue to champion better resource and revenue management, and ensure that resource utilization remains open, accountable, and responsive to the needs and aspirations of Filipinos”. Our experience in the past three years point to the contrary, despite still being covered by EITI. The absence of EITI-Ph mechanisms and platforms can only further weaken any accountability from government regulators.

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The Philippines will lose credibility among industry players and champions of transparency and accountability in the global mining industry with this withdrawal and attract the less responsible and more speculative junior mining companies to the country.

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