Apex Mining withdraws from Chamber of Mines

Publicly-listed Apex Mining Co. Inc. on Thursday said it has withdrawn its membership from the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) as the company disagreed with the umbrella group's stand on President Rodrigo Duterte's call for the industry to restore the environment.

"I do not agree that we should blame the illegal small-scale miners when the mining industry is put to task for perceived destruction of the environment," Apex Mining president and CEO Walter Brown said in a regulatory filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

According to Apex Mining, Brown was disappointed and frustrated by the chamber's response to the President's call for the mining industry to "clean up its acts."

During his second State of the Nation Address, Duterte threatened to "tax to death" mining firms who fail to restore the environmental damages they have caused communities where they operate.

"I would rather that the chamber regulate its own ranks and discipline its members who do not comply with existing mining rules and regulations, and those who pay lip service to responsible mining," Brown said.

"Every organization has its own share of good members and bad members. But the mining industry is subject to intense scrutiny now," he added.

Brown called on his fellow miners to clean up their own rank.

"All the good will go down the same drain with the bad, when the industry is taxed to death, as the President has warned," Brown said. — Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News