The interagency Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) will conduct its third round of audit in October that would cover quarry operations in the country and four mines in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Finance Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin told the BusinessMirror that they are expecting the third round of audit to be finished by April next year. “Target is around April of next year, barring any unforeseen delays,” he said.
The Department of Finance (DOF) on Thursday said in a news statement that four mines within BARMM would also be covered under the third audit. But Agabin said the audit would also cover other quarry operations in the country.
“The [scope of this audit on] mining will be in BARMM. Quarrying covers all, even those outside BARMM,” he said.
Agabin explained that they have already covered mine sites outside BARMM in the two reviews that they have undertaken previously.
As for quarrying, Agabin said they have yet to still determine how many operations in the country will be covered under the third round of audit.
According to DOF, the evaluation will cover technical, legal, social, economic, and environmental aspects of the mining operations—the same framework used in the first two audits done by the MICC on 50 mining operations across the country starting in 2018.
The first phase of the MICC review was done from February to August 2018, while the second was conducted from October 2019 to December last year.
Agabin also told the BusinessMIrror that the MICC found in its second round of audit that “mines audited were generally compliant.”
“We plan to have a road show to present findings,” he said.
The DOF said the Intergovernmental Relations Body (IGRB) agreed that the MICC, together with the representatives and experts from the Bangsamoro Government, would conduct an audit on the operations of mines in BARMM.
Co-chaired by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and BARMM Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal, the IGRB reached the decision during its 7th meeting held last March 26.
The Bangsamoro government agreed during that meeting that four mines in BARMM would be included in the third round of audit.
For its part, the IGRB said the participation of Bangsamoro government experts and representatives in the audit will provide the body with a baseline on the status of mining activities in the Bangsamoro region and allow the transfer of skills and technology in the evaluation of mining operations.
The IGRB also said experts from BARMM may also be included in future mining audits outside of the autonomous region to further develop their skills and technical capacity.
MICC was constituted in 2012 but it was only during the Duterte administration that the review or audit of mining operations was initiated by the council under the co-chairmanship of Dominguez and Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, the DOF said.
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