2022: The 2^nd Year of the Modified TSM Cycle  

In 2022, the second year of the Modified Cycle, these major activities were identified:

• Verification Service Providers (VSPs) approved by the Community of Interest in 2021 will undergo training with the assistance of the Mining Association of Canada.
• Membership submission of self-assessment reports will be mandatory, but said reports will not be made public.

Major Activity 1: VSP Training and Accreditation

COMP has established a process of External Verification for ensuring that COMP member companies’ reporting on TSM performance indicators is consistent, accurate and transparent.

Approved VSP Candidates

The VSPs identified by COMP are well-respected individuals who are acknowledged experts in the technical, environmental, and social development fields.  On November 25, 2021, the TSM Community of Interest Advisory Panel approved the list of all VSP candidates submitted by COMP.  These are:

MAC trains VSPs

The Canadian government, through the Canada Embassy Trade Mission, in an expression of support for the Philippines to succeed in its TSM journey, subsidized the funding for the VSP training – one of COMP’s two major TSM activities under the Modified Cycle for 2022. For four Saturdays beginning mid-February until mid-March 2022, the VSP candidates completed their training under the auspices of the Mining Association of Canada.

COMP Chairman Michael T. Toledo and Vice Chairman Gerard H. Brimo both attended the first day of the training sessions, with the former providing an inspirational message to the participants.

These now fully accredited VSPs would prove invaluable in ensuring the objectivity and integrity of TSM’s external verification process where they will be expected to validate our members’ self-assessment reports beginning 2023.

VSP Orientation, Mine Tour

As part of their ongoing TSM orientation, the VSPs visited the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) mine site in Claver, Surigao del Norte in Southern Philippines in September to see first hand the project’s operations as well as environmental protection and social development programs.  TMC officials and staff presented the mine project’s TSM self-assessment ratings to the VSPs using the software application designed and developed by Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC).  TMC is one of the operating subsidiaries of the NAC Group of Companies.

Major Activity 2: Mandatory Submission of Self-Assessment Reports

Following the Modified Verification Cycle for 2022, COMP has made mandatory to its members the reporting of their self-assessment reports.  The inclusive period for the submission is from January to December, which means the companies will have to begin submitting their reports within the first half of 2023.

The TSM Self-Assessment App

To support the COMP members’ self-assessment reporting, the Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) Group — composed of companies that are all part of the Chamber — has designed a self-assessment app which COMP has endorsed to our other member companies.  COMP will host this app on the Chamber website to enable its members to submit their reports online and make them accessible to our VSPs and, in 2024, some parts of the reports to the general public.

Self-Assessment App Tutorials

On October 12, company representatives tasked to implement TSM in their respective mining operations participated in the first in-person demonstration of the self-assessment app at the Lepanto Building in Makati City. A handful of VSPs were also present in the very first face-to-face meeting hosted by COMP since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. The demonstration was likewise made available via videotelephony to company representatives who were not able to join the onsite meeting.

Mr. Rolando Cruz, Miss Lyndsy Bartolome, and Mr. Manuel Rivas, Jr. of NAC – all the lead developers and designers of the MSSA – provided the participants a tutorial on how to navigate the app and responded to questions from both company representatives and VSPs. The app will accessible to all COMP members when they accomplish their respective self-rating for the period January to December 2022. COMP had hosted two online demos of the app in March and June.

COMP, Community of Interest Advisory Panel Matters

New COMP Chair

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines elected in December 2021 its next chair to replace Nickel Asia Corporation Chairman (NAC) Gerard Brimo who had been at the helm of COMP since 2017.  Mr. Brimo, who has assumed the post of vice chairman, helped COMP navigate through a challenging regulatory environment during his 5-year term as chairman.  He saw the government’s lifting of a 9-year moratorium on new mining permits and the lifting of a ban on open pit mining.

Succeeding Mr. Brimo as Chair of the Chamber of Mines is Atty. Michael Toledo, Press Secretary during the time of President Joseph E. Estrada and now the Chief Operating Officer of Silangan Mindanao Mining Company Inc., a subsidiary of Philex Mining Corp. He also heads the Government and Public Affairs of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and heads the MVP Group Media Bureau, with the group involved in telecoms, media, power, water, infrastructure, hospitals, agriculture and natural resources development.

While Atty. Toledo did not join the TSM Community of Interest (COI) Advisory Panel, Mr. Brimo stayed on as ex-officio member.

COI Panel Vacancies Filled

On  March 7, 2022, Ms Gloria Tan-Climaco – the former chair of Filminera Resources and former co-vice chair of the Chamber of Mines – and who was also an ex-officio member of Panel – passed away.  “Glo”, as she was fondly called in the industry, was a firm believer of responsible minerals development and a strong proponent of TSM.

Atty. Dante R. Bravo, a member of the COMP Board of Trustees, agreed to take Glo’s place. He is the President of Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc.  or FNI, a publicly listed company in the Philippines, and also President of its various subsidiaries. FNI, under its subsidiary Platinum Group Metals, is the second largest exporter of nickel ore in the Philippines. He also heads the Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) since 2017.

In the middle of the year, Prof. Cielo Magno, was appointed Undersecretary of the Department of Finance and, therefore, was no longer be able to sit in the Panel to provide CSO perspectives to Panel discussions. It was only fitting that the find a replacement with someone who is equally well-known and highly respected in CSO circles.

Mr. Filemon Sta. Ana III fits the bill, and was unanimously chosen by the Panel to fill the void left by Usec. Magno.  Mr. Sta. Ana is co-founder and executive director of the Action for Economic Reforms or AER, a non-governmental organization that does policy research and advocacy mainly on macroeconomic issues like tax reforms. He is likewise the chair of other development-oriented CSOs like Bantay Kita (for extractive industries revenue transparency) and Samdhana Philippines (environmental justice).  He is also a trustee of the Samdhana international organization, with headquarters in Indonesia.

Other Matters

Crisis Management and Communications Training

To help prepare the company for its 2022 TSM Self-Assessment, particularly for the Crisis Management and Communications Planning Protocol, members of Philex Mining Corporation’s Executive Committee participated in a two-day Crisis Management and Communications Training in November.