Regional Director Leo Van V. Juguan of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Office 6 participated in the 2017 PH-EITI National Conference held last May 11 at the Pandanggo-Polkabal Hall, Fiesta Pavillion in Manila Hotel. The Philippine Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (PH-EITI) is a venue for dialogue among stakeholders in the extractive industry.
The conference focused on the theme Extracting Value in Transparency: Towards Sustainable Disclosure and Dialogue for Development (3Ds), RD Juguan said. It was attended by mining stakeholders including government officials and representatives from mining companies, civil society organizations and the academe.
The DENR-MGB delegation was headed by the DENR Undersecretary and concurrent MGB Director Mario Luis L. Jacinto. In his opening remarks delivered by the MGB Assistant Director Atty. Danilo U. Uykieng, the DENR-MGB expressed its full support to the PH-EITI by providing all required information such as on revenues generated, mineral reservation areas, and environmental and social development funds to ensure transparency in the minerals sector.
“MGB will fully support the programs of the PH-EITI and commit to continue introducing reforms and innovations in its system, including the full disclosure of information through the MGB Central Database Portal,” Atty. Uykieng said.
DENR-MGB recently launched the MGB Central Database System to beef up its efforts of making information on the minerals sector accessible to all stakeholders. Information on the “status of mining applications, requests for mineral analysis, mining tenements/permits issued, mineral resources data, mining technology related data, minerals industry reports, status of mining-related cases, research and technology data, mine environmental and safety data, and other mining-related data” is accessible on-line through the database portal. (MGB RO 6 citing MGB CO Press Release)