We are a strong coalition of civil society organizations advocating for transparency and accountability in the extractive industry. Click here to know more.
Bantay Kita Board
Filomeno Sta. Ana III president |
Allan Barnacha vice president |
Cielo Magno PhD Secretary |
Vincent Lazatin treasurer |
Atty. Gerthy Mayo-Anda BOARD MEMBER |
Jaybee Garganera BOARD MEMBER |
Lodel Magbanua board member |
Aurora Teresita Tabada BOARD MEMBER |
Perpevina Tio BOARD MEMBER |
Starjoan Villanueva BOARD MEMBER |
Renato Bañas visayas ISLAND REPRESENTATIVE |
Datu Jimboy Catawanan mindanao island representative |
Dr. Merian Mani luzon ISLAND REPRESENTATIVe |
Bantay Kita Secretariat
Tina Pimentel national coordinator |
Beverly Besmanos mindanao coordinator |
Alma Milallos finance officer |
Joan Christie Altobar administrative officer |
Marco Angelo Zaplan research and comms officer |
Rose Ann Paragas project officer |
Reports and Publications
Bantay Kita Primer
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Audited FS 2014
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Annual Report 2015 | |||||||
Our Development Partners
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our mandate
Our Vision
Empowered communities that promote sustainable development and good governance of natural resources through transparency and accountability in the extractive industries.
Our Mission
To build capacities of civil society organizations to monitor the transparency and accountability initiatives and to engage with the different sectors involved in the extractive industries.
Our Objectives
- To institutionalise transparency and accountability in the extractive industries, in response to the people's inherent rights to participate in policy and decision-making and ultimately contribute to the development of more responsible institutions.
- To maximise benefits from the extractive industries, especially revenue gains for the country from the utilisation and development of its non-renewable resources.
- To build capabilities of communities and civil society organisations in engaging with the extractive industries at each stage of the value chain.
- To secure the law on right to public information.
- To rationalise of fiscal incentives and remove redundant fiscal incentives to resource-seeking industries.
- To facilitate networking and alliance-building.
- To promote and strengthen international solidarity on community engagement in natural resource management.
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history
Bantay Kita History
In the 7th Asia-Pacific Mining Conference and Exhibition, the President herself stated that the mining industry would “serve as a leading engine for Philippine economic growth, becoming a source of revenue and wealth to allow the government to seriously bring down the level of poverty in the country.”[1]
The Mining Act of 1995 enabled the entry of foreign multinationals into large-scale mining projects. It states that “It shall be the responsibility of the State to promote their (mineral resources) rational exploration, development, utilization and conservation through the combined efforts of government and the private sector in order to enhance national growth in a way that effectively safeguards the environment and protect the rights of affected communities.”[2]
Those who favor mining activities attempt to portray the industry as “responsible” and argue that mining significantly contributes to growth, specifically in terms of generating jobs and government revenues.
However, the extraction of minerals in the Philippines has become a hotly debated development issue. Many local communities have found themselves and their environments adversely affected by mining projects and various studies have shown that the supposed benefits from the mining industry have not materialized.[3]
The mining industry’s small but positive contribution to economic growth is offset by the fact that it does not promote sustainable development. The industry’s links to the domestic economy (forward and backward linkages) are low. For every peso output from mining, the input from other sectors of the economy is equivalent to only 36 centavos. Therefore, while it exploits and depletes natural resources, the mining industry makes almost no contribution to the lives and livelihoods of the people in the local economy.
Environmental Degradation: In two major environmental disasters, thousands of tons of waste and tailings from mining operations gushed out into fields and waterways (Marcopper in Marinduque province, 1996 and Lafayette in Rapu-Rapu, Albay in 2003) demonstrated the destructive capacity and irresponsibility of mining companies and the inadequacy of government regulation of their operations. More recently, the indigenous Mangyan tribe in Mindoro province led a protest with a hunger strike to demand the cancellation of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to a Norwegian company, Intex Resources. [6]
Opposition to the mining industry is robust – from economic policy advocates, environmentalists, transparency advocates and development oriented civil society organizations and on occasion, even from some local government units.
In summary, other than its modest contribution to Philippine exports, there is little in the current state of large-scale mining operations to recommend it. Given the environmental degradation that it has caused, the damage to local livelihoods, its negligible contribution to growth and employment and the sub-optimal revenues that it has generated for government, opposition to the industry is justified and both monitoring and reforms are necessary to prevent a further worsening of the industries effects.
Given this context, Bantay Kita was formed as a network to provide operational expression by which a transparency advocacy can be advanced.
Without duplicating the work of any of the existing CSOs within its network, Bantay Kita was envisioned to:
(1) take the lead in engaging mining companies, national government agencies as well as local government units towards achieving greater transparency and accountability in the mining industry;
(2) to serve as a mechanism for building the capacities of individual member organizations and contribute to strengthening their various advocacies;
(3) actively dialogue with communities, local government units, private companies and the national government to promote transparency and voluntary compliance mechanisms such as EITI;
(4) advocate the removal of fiscal incentives from resource-seeking enterprises such as mining, for the passage of the Alternative Mining Act and/or the inclusion of its transparency provisions in the laws that define regulatory mechanisms, monitoring of the environmental and community development responsibilities of the industry and support for the broad campaign to have an enabling law on the public’s right to information are related and inter-linking advocacies.
Given this context, Bantay Kita was formed as a network to provide operational expression by which a transparency advocacy can be advanced.
Without duplicating the work of any of the existing CSOs within its network, Bantay Kita was envisioned to:
(1) take the lead in engaging mining companies, national government agencies as well as local government units towards achieving greater transparency and accountability in the mining industry;
(2) to serve as a mechanism for building the capacities of individual member organizations and contribute to strengthening their various advocacies;
(3) actively dialogue with communities, local government units, private companies and the national government to promote transparency and voluntary compliance mechanisms such as EITI;
(4) advocate the removal of fiscal incentives from resource-seeking enterprises such as mining, for the passage of the Alternative Mining Act and/or the inclusion of its transparency provisions in the laws that define regulatory mechanisms, monitoring of the environmental and community development responsibilities of the industry and support for the broad campaign to have an enabling law on the public’s right to information are related and inter-linking advocacies.
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