Bon Besmanos
Government’s weak capacity to measure the social and environmental impact of the extractive industry has created a lot of problems in the Philippines’ mining communities and its extractive sector.
At the close of 2023, the Governance Action Hub connected with Bon Besmanos, the national coordinator of Bantay Kita, a coalition of civil society organizations championing transparency and accountability in the Philippine extractive sector. Bon has been a dedicated member of the coalition since 2009 when it was still a project under Action for Economic Reforms.
Bon discussed the impact of governance challenges on the work done by local organizations to promote more accountability and transparency in the extractive sector and ways to improve it.
According to her, governance interventions must consider its impact towards peacebuilding and conflict transformation in all spheres, especially in islands like Mindanao.
Understanding the history and interests of extractive communities will be important for a just energy transition in the Philippines.
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