Citing the need for policies to "be based on science and hard facts and not on mere slogans of hard-line ideology," the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) asked President Rodrigo R. Duterte "to immediately convene a meeting with the industry" to break "the wasteful impasse" the industry has had to endure since 2011.

The country's miners have been reeling from the moratorium on new mining permits that has been in place since 2011 and extended indefinitely through Executive Order No. 79 signed by former President Benigno S. C. Aquino III on July 6, 2012. A new mining revenue-sharing scheme that was supposed to lift the moratorium was left untouched when the 16th Congress ended last June.
Read more: Miners ask Duterte to break impasse