The Department of Finance (DOF) will spearhead the annual provincial roadshow of the Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PH-EITI) this month to inform mining stakeholders across the country about updates and developments in the Philippines’ continuing implementation of EITI’s global standards of transparency in the management of the country’s mineral resources.
The roadshow will be held in the cities of Baguio, Manila, Puerto Princesa, Davao, Cebu, and Butuan within the month of August, and cover about 70 LGUs in 13 regions that host mining activities.
DOF Assistant Secretary Ma. Teresa Habitan, alternate focal person of PH-EITI, said that, aside from the roadshow, DOF is also overseeing the Philippines’ validation as an EITI implementing country, a process that started in January this year.
The validation process reviews the country’s progress in and resulting impact from implementing EITI’s international transparency standards in the governance of the extractives sector.
The Philippines will also be hosting the 38th EITI International Board meeting on October 25 to 26 in Manila. It is projected that the results of the country’s validation will come out by this time.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has said, in the PH-EITI National Conference last May, that a strong governance framework for the extractive industries, not a ban on the sector, will enable the country to “get the best of both worlds,” that is, “ensuring the sustainability of our environment on one hand and creating wealth for our people from our natural endowments on the other”.
He has also assured stakeholders in the extractive industries that the Duterte administration “will be firm but fair”, exercising “strong, but not arbitrary, governance” and abiding by “global best practices in ensuring sustainable development” through “transparency in all our processes.”
Dominguez, who, as Finance Secretary, chairs the Multi-stakeholder Group that governs PH-EITI, expressed support for the Philippines’ participation in EITI, as the initiative “brings together all stakeholders in a forum to set standards of honesty and openness as well as benchmarks of responsibility to the community.”
According to Dominguez, “only full transparency can build an atmosphere of trust among stakeholders” and assure the public “that businesses are run with integrity and regulations enforced with competence.”
