ASoG papers see responsible mining possible but…

I WRITE this letter in response to the half-page advertisement of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines in the Nov. 22 issue of the Inquirer. After conferring with Dr. Antonio La Viña , dean of the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG), I wish to make the following points:

First, the Chamber of Mines misunderstands the nature of the academic conference ASoG convened, which is a peer review conference, an academic exercise where the result is an intellectual product of the school. We welcome all stakeholders reviewing the ASoG papers, but the final product is solely the school’s and will be published in due time.

Second, I reject the accusation that all the presenters are anti-mining; in fact, most of them do not have a reputation or a public record on mining and were chosen precisely because of their ability to be objective and independent.

Finally, I also reject the characterization of the ASoG papers as anti-mining. In fact, the compiled papers conclude that responsible mining is possible, but certain governance conditions must be fulfilled to make this a reality. It calls on the national government to impose a moratorium on the approval of new mining agreements and operations until such conditions are met.

We would like to invite the mining industry to dialogue with us and tell us where ASoG did not get it right and how it can improve its report.

—FR. JOSE RAMON T. VILLARIN, SJ,

president, Ateneo de Manila University