GOVERNMENT CENTER, PALO, Leyte-The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Office 8 participated in the 2017 PH-EITI Roadshow covering Cluster 5 composed of Regions 6, 7 and 8 in Cebu City on August 16-17, 2017.
With the theme, “Extracting Value in Transparency: A Forum on Promoting Local Development through Sustained Disclosure and Dialogue”, this year’s roadshow highlighted the 3rd Report while focusing on how the EITI process, through continued disclosure and dialogue among stakeholders can help strengthen natural resource governance at the subnational level and ensure that extractive activities benefit local communities in a sustainable way.
The roadshow consisted on a multi-stakeholder forum on the first day, and on the second day, a workshop on the following topics: Using the PH-EITI Report as a tool for local development and EITI implementation at the subnational level.
The workshop basically highlighted priority issues and recommendations and action plan in the respective topics assigned.
“Before CSOs don’t trust the industry, the industry doesn’t trust the CSOs, and everybody thinks that the government is not doing anything, but with the advent of PH-EITI, all that has changed. Now, we are all in this together!” Atty. Ron Recidoro, MSG-Industry, during the panel discussion, said.
Representatives from government agencies, local government units, extractive companies/businesses, and civil society organizations and the media, attended the forum and participated in a lively discussion that surfaced issues and suggestions in attaining transparency in the mining, oil and gas, and coal industries.
The PH-EITI roadshow nationwide aims to promote transparency and good governance in the Philippines’ extractives sector. The Cebu Leg was the fifth of six fora to be held in key cities across the country. (CELESTE FAITH B.DE LA CRUZ/PR)
