Statement on PH-EITI Validation Results

Bantay Kita commends the Philippine EITI’s compliance to the EITI Standards. Being the first country to achieve the satisfactory progress against the EITI Standard is a milestone. We recognize all efforts and participation of the PH-EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group and Secretariat in pursuing improved natural resource governance.

We acknowledge positive strides towards transparency through the implementation of EITI in the Philippines. It has given access to data and documents that were previously unavailable to the public. It also increased awareness and surfaced questions for public debate and policy recommendations for further advancement of natural resource governance in the Philippines. We have observed enhancement of processes rooted in the PH-EITI MSG recommendations. This illustrates the PH-EITI’s significance in advancing improved governance of the industry.

However, more needs to be done. For EITI to remain relevant, it can pursue enhanced environmental and social monitoring to provide a sound basis to discern the full impact of resource extraction. EITI can also be a powerful venue for local development moving beyond revenue transparency. Subnational EITI MSGs can be a local platform for constructive engagement of concerned stakeholders (government, civil society, indigenous peoples, and industry) in resource management to ensure that it contributes to sustainable development. Empowerment and inclusivity of local stakeholders are significant to local natural resource governance.

We urge all members of the PH-EITI MSG to keep their commitments and continue forging forward for improved resource management. For reporting entities, we call for greater disclosure of timely, comprehensive, disaggregated, relevant data that can contribute to analysis for reforms. To the industry, we enjoin the participation of additional large scale metallic mining companies. We welcome the participation of non-metallic large scale mines. We demand that Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, the only material coal company to participate in EITI; it has not done so. To regulatory agencies, we appeal that they exercise your function over the industry’s they oversee. For the DENR, we expect the Department to carry its mandate to implement DAO 2017-07, which compels the participation of all mining contractors in EITI. We appeal to government entities to accelerate the pace of governance reforms.
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May PH-EITI remain relevant and achieve its objective of improving natural resource governance so that proceeds from extractives may benefit all. In this light, we also urge the passage of the institutionalization of EITI.