Senator Francis 'Chiz' Escudero raised concerns on Monday regarding the inefficiency of the Philippines in utilizing its abundant mineral resources during a Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change hearing.

Escudero pointed out that despite the country’s significant mineral wealth, it continues to struggle in fully capitalizing on these resources for economic growth and development.

“The goal of this hearing is simple. As far as I know, the Philippines is one of the countries with the richest mineral deposits in the world. We rank in the top 10 with abundant mineral deposits,” he said.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources Assistant Secretary for Mining Concerns Michael Cabalda added that while the Philippines has significant mineral reserves, exploration efforts have been limited.

“At this point, because we have not explored fully, we are looking at nine million hectares with high potential resources. We cannot say that we are at that level yet,” Cabalda said.

Despite the country’s natural advantages, Escudero raised questions about why the economy has not been able to fully capitalize on these resources.

“The Philippines is a rich country that pretends to be poor when it comes to mineral resources. Why aren’t we able to take advantage of them? What is the bottleneck, and why is this a problem?” he asked.