Environment department poised to ban open-pit mining — Lopez

THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will ban mines preparing to operate from using the openpit method to extract metal ore.

“I’m banning open- pit mining, not the existing ones because they are already there. We just have to find a way out of it,” Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez told reporters at the DENR headquarters in Quezon City yesterday.

A check with the department showed she had not yet signed the order as of early evening yesterday.

“I can do it as a matter of policy. I’m DENR Secretary. I have policy to ban open-pit mining. It’s my prerogative.”

She clarified that the impending order will spare those already operating using that method.

“The ones that are there, walang magawa, nandiyan na eh (we can’t do anything — they’re there). But don’t start because once it starts and they don’t have the technology to make it better, I find it very scary,” she added.

Asked then if the ban will cover only those still in pre-operation stage, Ms. Lopez replied: “No

more hukay-hukay diyan (digging there) at all. Like zero. Stop it already.”

DENR in early February ordered closed 22 of the country’s 41 operating metal mines and the suspension of five others for violations ranging from operating in watersheds to causing siltation in surrounding waterways.

The department followed that in the middle of the same month by ordering 75 other projects in pre- operation stages to explain why they should not be similarly sanctioned.

The draft administrative order, titled: “Banning the Open Pit Method of Mining Companies for Copper, Gold, Silver and Complex Ores in the Country”, claimed most open pits in the past “ended up as perpetual liabilities, causing adverse impacts to the environment.”

The order described open- pit mining as “characterized by the extraction of metallic ore from a surface excavation resembling roughly an inverted cone with benches along its walls.” The method has been employed mainly for the extraction of copper, gold, silver and other ores.

For Chamber of Mines of the Philippines Vice-President for Legal and Policy Ronald S. Recidoro, the new policy is “absurd” since open-pit mining (OPM) is an internationally accepted method for mining.

“It can be done safely and properly, and [project areas] can be rehabilitated in a manner that allows for other land uses: agri, fisheries and even tourism,” Mr. Recidoro told reporters in a mobile phone message yesterday.

“How does she propose to mine shallow mineral deposits found just two to 20 meters underground? With this open- pit ban, she is essentially banning the mining of shallow ore deposits that can only be extracted using OPM.”

He also noted that Republic Act No. 7942, or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, itself does not prohibit the method and that a mere order from a line department cannot supercede or amend a legislated law.

Sought for comment, Carlo A. Arcilla, director at the National Institute for Geological Sciences of the University of the Philippines, said in a telephone interview: “An administrative order like an executive order should not supersede nationally enacted law.”

“That’s the biggest problem with this administrative order.”

Mr. Arcilla noted that coal mines and quarrying are open-pit mines. “If she wants to prevent open-pit mining because apparently the assumption from the thing is it is inherently evil, dapat isama ang ( she should include) quarrying.”

DENR Undersecretary for Legal and Planning and Policy divisions Maria Paz G. Luna told reporters that miners “can always file something saying ‘di kami kasama diyan (we shouldn’t be included)… That can still be a matter of discussion.”

Ms. Lopez said she is rushing the policy ahead of the Commission on Appointment’s decision on her appointment by President Rodrigo R. Duterte after Congress reconvenes on May 2 from a six-week break.

“I’m doing it now because I have no idea what’s gonna happen on Tuesday,” she said.