Amid CA rejection, mining firm files graft complaint vs Lopez
A MINING FIRM has lodged a graft complaint against rejected Environment Secretary Ma. Regina Paz “Gina” L. Lopez before the Office of the Ombudsman for her allegedly imposing “additional and unsubstantiated” requirements on the firm’s application for export permit.
In a 40-page complaint, Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. (CMDC), one of the firms ordered suspended by the Environment department in July last year, accused Ms. Lopez of violating Sections 3(a), (e), and (f ) of the Anti- Graft Corrupt Practices Act.
The company also accused Ms. Lopez of illegal exaction and of violating the Administrative Code of 1987, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.
According to the complaint, when Citinickel was suspended in July 22 last year, they filed a Mineral Ore Export Permit (MOEP) with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau ( MBG) to export mineral ores mined prior to the suspension date.
Citinickel said: “it is imperative that these nickel ores are properly disposed of and not left sitting on the mining area, because they are hazardous to the environment in such state.”
The complaint said Ms. Lopez issued another memorandum order on Jan. 30 “directing the MGB Director to impose additional requirements for the issuance of MOEPs.”
The additional requirement was for the company to place in a trust fund amounting to P2 million per hectare of “disturbed land” to be used to “further mitigate the adverse impacts of the operation to the environment and to the affected communities.”
The mining firm said it assailed the said additional requirements before the Office of the President, arguing that it has been depositing similar funds required under the law for the same purpose of “mitigating the adverse impacts of our operations to the environment and the affected communities.”
The firm said that on Feb. 24, it was informed by the MGB that Ms. Lopez granted the clearance to dispose their stockpiles, but this “came with a sword of Damocles... as (this clearance) is subjected once more to a new, more onerous, set of conditions of unknown legal basis.”
The company claimed it was ordered to deposit P1 million to a trust fund for every shipment of the said stockpiles and “undertake to secure performance bond in the amount of P130 million.”
The firm also claimed it was ordered to use biochar as a means of rehabilitation for the affected land.
However, the firm noted too in its complaint that the use of biochar is being pushed by the Philippine Biochar Association, Inc., of which one of the trustees is former Environment Undersecretary and Lopez appointee Philip G. Camara.
The complaint read in part that “this Honorable Office must be apprised that Secretary Lopez’s surreptitious imposition of the Biochar Project is highly doubtful and suspicious,” the complaint read.
This is the fourth graft complaint against Ms. Lopez.