(Iloilo City) – (Iloilo City) – The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Offices in Regions 6, 7 and 8 facilitated a virtual meeting on November 3, 2021 with mining permit holders associations in the Visayas regions. MGB VI OIC Regional Director Raul A. Laput said the major objective of the virtual meeting is to organize a Visayas-wide permit holders association through the election of a Board of Trustees per region and select representatives to the national oversight committee of the National Unified Information, Education and Communication Plan (NUIECP).
Ms. Liz Cherry D. Solijon, Officer-In-Charge of the Mineral Economics, Information and Publications Division of the MGB Central Office presented the salient features of the NUIECP. She said that the NUIECP is a unified IEC campaign plan focusing on responsible mining practices of the mining industry with the tagline #MineResponsibility. The NUIECP initiates for the collaboration of IEC plans of the minerals industry as embedded in the Social Development Management Program (SDMP) mandated of mining permit holders and contractors. Launched on November 9, 2020 at The Elements Eton Cetris in Quezon City, pre-event activities, displays of info and photo walls, a 360 virtual reality experience of mining communities, videos on best practices of responsible mining, and a statement and pledge of commitment from the stakeholders highlighted the launching. Further, MGB Director Atty. Wilfredo G. Moncano issued a memorandum to all RDs on January 16, 2020, instructing all mining contractors and permit holders within their jurisdiction to allocate funds for the implementation of the NUIEC Plan from the IEC component of the SDMP, Ms. Solijon said.
Twenty-one permit holders from Regions 6, 7, and 8 attended the meeting. They elected three officers per region to the Board of Trustees (BOT) who then agreed to select two representatives from among themselves to the national oversight committee of the NUIECP. For 2021-2022, the president of mining permit holders from Region 6 with the president from Region 7 as an alternate, will represent the Visayas cluster to the NUIEC Plan oversight committee, the BOT agreed. In the succeeding years, the body agreed to rotate the representation of the Visayas cluster among the BOTs from regions 6, 7 and 8.
The NUIEC Plan national oversight committee will regularly convene to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the plans and programs of the #Mine responsibility campaign. (MGBVI, DENR)
