CSOs in EI gather and brainstorm action plan at BK’s National Conference 2016

2/19/2016

CSO representatives from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao recently met and brainstormed action plans in the recently held Bantay Kita CSO National Conference held at the Manila Hotel last February 17-18. More than 100 participants attended the said event which was held after the Philippine EITI launched the second report.

The first day consisted of plenary sessions and panel discussions. Dr. Cielo Magno, BK national coordinator, presented on the Philippine Mining Development Framework while Mr. Jelson Garcia of the Natural Resource Governance Institute presented on Global Trends in Transparency and Accountability.

Attorney Dante Gatmaytan of the UP College of Law presented on opportunities for reform in the natural resource governance sector while Attorney Jay Batongbacal also from the UP College of Law presented on his study on black sand and quarrying.

The afternoon session consisted of presentations on various researches presented by BK’s young blood.

Mr. Marco Zaplan, BK communications and research analyst, shared to the audience initial findings of the Mining Transparency Index while Ms. Madeline Aloria, BK consultant, presented her study on beneficial ownership in the mining industry. Mr. Anton Ragos, also a BK consultant, talked about the findings of his study on impact of social development and management programs by mining companies. Ms. Gina Tumlos, BK legal consultant, presented her evaluation of environmental monitoring documents recently disclosed in the PH-EITI Contracts Portal. They were joined by veterans BK Board Starj Villanueva who presented the CSO Assessment of the 2nd EITI report and Mr. Melvin Lamanilao who presented on lessons and experiences in the implementation of subnational EITI.

Breakout sessions followed by planning sessions were conducted during the second day. Participants were divided into island group caucuses along with one separate caucus for indigenous peoples. All caucuses presented their action plans leading to June 2016.