SOUTH CO TAB A TO COURT UP HOLDS OPEN-PIT MINING BAN
KORONADAL CITY— A South Cotabato regional trial court (RTC) has upheld the legality of a ban on open-pit mining imposed by the provincial government in 2010.
In a 31-page ruling dated Oct. 12, Koronadal City RTC Acting Presiding Judge Vicente Peña said the ban was consistent with Department Administrative Order (DAO) No. 201710, the Local Government Code and the Constitution.
Titled “Banning the Openpit Method of Mining for Copper, Gold, Silver and Complex Ores in the Country,” DAO 2017-10 was issued by the late Gina Lopez when she was environment secretary.
The ban imposed by South Cotabato, which predated Lopez’s order, was contained in Section 22 of the provincial environment code.
This provision put a huge stumbling block to the operation of the Tampakan mining project in the province, which has the potential to generate some $5.9 billion in mining revenues.
Petitioners
In January last year, a group of indigenous peoples and private companies petitioned the court to revoke Section 22 of the South Cotabato environment code. These included the Bongmal Tribal Council, Danlag Tribal Council, Fulo Bato Tribal Council, Kiblawan CADT-26, Southcot Mining Corp. and Tampakan Mining Corp.
The Southcot Mining Corp. and Tampakan Mining Corp. are collectively known as the Tampakan Group of Companies to which the Tampakan mining claim was assigned by the government during the discovery of the minefield in the mid-1980s.
Sagittarius Mines Inc., developer of the $5.9-billion Tampakan project, said in an earlier study that the most feasible way to extract the deposits was through open-pit mining method.
Answered prayer
Fr. Jerome Millan, Social Action Center director of the Diocese of Marbel that has been opposing the project, lauded the court’s decision.
“This court ruling is an answered prayer. The decision comes at a propitious time when our natural resources need the most protection, when the natural environment is threatened by human actions,” Millan said in a statement.
Touted as Southeast Asia’s largest known copper and gold reserve, the Tampakan mining tenement straddles the provinces of South Cotabato—where the bulk of the deposits lie—sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur.
Maya Quirino, advocacy coordinator of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-friends of the Earth Philippines, said the local court’s decision affirmed the autonomy of local governments over the stewardship and protection of the environment.