A COMMITTEE in the House of Representatives approved a bill Wednesday that would prohibit the export of raw black sand, in a bid to capture value-added from processing it before export.
The House Committee on Natural Resources approved an unnumbered substitute bill to House Bill 6321 or the proposed Black Sand Processing Act, filed by Probinsyano Ako Party-list Rep. Jose C. Singson, Jr.
The measure permits only the export of black sand that has been processed, and proposes to require miners companies to build, or lease advanced processing plants to extract magnetite in the province or region where the sand was mined.
Violators could be liable for at least six years’ imprisonment and a fine of at least P5 million.
Mr. Singson said that the Philippines is losing billions of dollars from importing processed black sand, which could be instrumental in building up its infrastructure.
“Imports of these processed products (are) very costly, while the raw materials used… were exported from our country at a very cheap price,” he said in the bill’s explanatory note. — Russell Louis C. Ku
