DENR looking into issuance of permits to expand mining areas
THE ENVIRONMENT department will investigate irregular permit approvals that expanded the area covered by mining contracts, the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) said.
“In its 28th meeting, the MICC also agreed that it should be the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources), through its Mines and Geosciences Bureau, that should ‘take a close look and take appropriate action’ on the issue involving the expansion of 24 mining areas covered by Mineral Production Sharing Agreements ( MPSAs),” the MICC said in a statement on Tuesday.
Finance Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin, a member of the MICC’s technical working group, noted that there were MPSAs allowed to extend operations to areas not adjacent to the original site.
“Extensions need to be into contiguous areas. In one case, an Ilocos operation won an extension for a mining area in Zambales,” he told reporters.
“Instinct says there seems to be something wrong. We have to look further into it. Look at the different circumstance. It’s in different provinces, it involves different minerals,” he said.
Mr. Agabin said that the contracts were signed around June 2016, before the Duterte administration took over. The DENR Secretary at the time was Ramon Jesus P. Paje.
He declined to identify the miners involved, saying only that the flagged incidents do not involve listed firms.
“We’ll look deeper into it and determine when those contracts were made. If someone is liable, make the person responsible for it,” Mr. Agabin said.
According to Republic Act No. 7942, or the Mining Act of 1995, an MPSA is an agreement in which the government grants to the contractor the exclusive right to conduct mining operations within a defined area and shares in the gross output.
The contractor shall provide the financing, technology, management and personnel necessary for the implementation of the agreement.
There are 311 MPSAs currently in force, according to DENR data.
The DENR in mid- February ordered the cancellation of permits for 75 undeveloped mines nationwide for being located in watersheds. —