CSO National Conference and Action Planning Workshop

The conference was organized by Bantay Kita and supported by the USAID through the Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), the British Embassy Manila, Christian Aid, and 11.11.11. The event dovetailed with the launch of the 2nd EITI Country Report during the 4th Philippine EITI National Conference. The conference had three major objectives: to build the capacity of CSOs in understanding the EITI report and related documents, to increase the understanding of CSOs of the extractive industry, and to strengthen the CSO coalition by identifying activities relevant to the extractive industry context in the country. The expected deliverables included a conference documentation report, four Action Plans from subnational CSOs of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and the IP group. A total of 137 participants attended the conference, with 76 (55%) being male and 61 (45%) being female. Representatives from development partner agencies, including USAID, British Embassy, Christian Aid, DAI, ADB, Australian Embassy, Natural Resource Governance Institute, Triple 11, and World Bank, were also present. The majority of attendees (70%) were CSO participants from the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and the special group of Indigenous Peoples, mostly from Mindanao areas. The conference served as a platform for knowledge sharing on various topics related to the extractive industry, including Bantay Kita's research findings on the socio-economic impact of mining, lessons learned from project implementation, and the findings of the monitoring tools implemented by the coalition. The event also introduced CSO representatives to the PH-EITI MSG. Director Daniel Miller from USAID-Philippines commended Bantay Kita and CSO representatives to the PH-EITI MSG for their work in holding the government accountable for funds received from the extractive industry on behalf of the Filipino people. He praised the CSO representatives for their steadfast support to the government towards achieving EITI compliant status in 2016. Mr. Stephen Lysaght, 1st Secretary & Head of the Political and Economic Team British Embassy Manila, shared that from the perspective of the UK government, EITI is there to help unleash the economic potentials in the Philippines. He reminded that there is a need to look at agriculture and other sectors of the economy while issues in the mining sector continue to be addressed. The global trends on transparency and accountability were presented by Mr. Jelson Garcia, Asia Pacific Director of the Natural Resource Governance Institute. He discussed several international initiatives that aim to strengthen and expand the framework for disclosure, including the EITI, the US Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the EU Accounting and Transparency Directives, the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act of Canada, and the Swiss proposal for mandatory reporting standards for the extractive sector. Dr. Cielo Magno, National Coordinator of Bantay Kita, discussed the Mining Development Framework, which presented minimum recommendations for the mining sector to contribute to sustainable development. The reforms needed in terms of governance were also presented, including strengthening monitoring of IP royalties, institutionalizing accountability mechanisms, strengthening regulatory capacity, and developing the downstream industry. A study on Black Sand Mining/Quarrying was presented by Atty. Jay Batongbacal, Associate Professor in UP College of Law. The study highlighted the possible impacts if the activity is not properly managed and regulated. A presentation on Small Scale Mining was done by Atty. Golda Benjamin, Instructor in Siliman University, which showed that while the trend in large-scale and non-metallic mining production value have increased, small scale gold mining showed a sharp drop from P42.9 Billion in 2010 to P0.3 Billion in 2013. Atty. Dante Gatmaytan, Professor in UP College of Law, presented on the new opportunities for reform in the natural resource governance sector. He mentioned that there is an encouraging trend in the environmental and local autonomy case law, which led to the shutdown of operations of some mining companies. The CSO initial and macro assessment of the 2nd EITI Report was presented by Starjoan Villanueva, Executive Director of the Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM) and CSO Representative to the PH-EITI MSG. The assessment results included the 2013 contribution of the EI to the economy being not significant, a problem with the IA materiality threshold of P1 Billion, and the National government having the bigger share (vis-à-vis LGU) in mining revenue yet they do not host mining activities and are even not exposed to risks. The Mining Transparency Index (MTI) was presented by Marco Zaplan, Communications and Research Analyst of Bantay Kita. The tool was developed to determine the level of transparency in the mining industry