Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga has stressed the need for a whole-of-society approach to develop the country’s mining industry.
She noted that the DENR’s budget for 2022 is P25 billion which is “not within the top 10.” The proposed 2023 budget is around P2 billion lower at P23 billion. The actor-turned-politician said he knows mining even as a teenager because of his father, Roy Padilla Sr. who he said was President of the National Mines and Allied Workers’ Union and England-based Mining International Federation and a one-time Philippine Representative to the International Labor Organization.
She noted that The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines has a set of standards and the DENR is seemingly always on the catch-up “because we have limited resources to enhance industry activities.”