MICC finishes mine audit; DENR starts regular review on miners

As the Mineral Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) completed the longdelayed review on the appeals made by mining firms against the suspension and closure orders imposed to them by former Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez, the government said the industry can now move forward with the regular audit on mining firms.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonas Leones said as the MICC wraps up its audit on the 26 mining companies that were on the risk of being closed and suspended, the DENR can now proceed with its regular audit on mining firms to assure continuous compliance of the Philippine Mining Act.

Because at the end of the day, he said that it's "the DENR who is mandated to do that" and that "MICC is just recommendatory." Last year, former Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez went on a closure and suspension spree of mining companies.

In order to help resolve the issues surrounding these orders, inter-agency MICC stepped in a few months after the orders were imposed and decided to conduct a review on such orders, which would only happen a year later or a couple of months ago.

So for some reasons, DENR and MICC both ended up conducting their own separate reviews on the 26 mining companies who were ordered either closed or suspended.

DENR already completed its review last month.

Leones said that based on its own review, some of Lopez's orders have been affirmed, while others have been modified.

When sought for comment, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said the DENR will first wait for the MICC result before it will reveal its own result to the public.

MICC is tasked to consolidate the results of the review that was conducted by the DENR separately.

In an interview, Mercedita Sombilla, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Assistance Secretary for Regional Development, said the Technical Working Group (TWG) that was tasked to conduct the MICC-funded audit is set to meet next week to collate the reports they have produced.

"The review is done, except for the economic and social analysis, and I think the results will be presented soon or this month," Sombilla said on Monday.

"This [meeting] is going to be among us, TWG members, not yet MICC. We will be reporting and we will consolidate [the results we got from the DENR]," she added.

Sombilla said that based on the results, some orders that were imposed by Lopez will "definitely" be lifted or changed.

Cimatu earlier said that most of the violations of the mining firms who received suspension and closure orders from Lopez only involves breaching of tree-cutting laws, in contrary to initial findings that led to such orders.