Closure order on 26 mining firms may not be pursued

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mineral Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) are now conducting their own separate mining reviews on the order issued by former DENR Secretary Regina Paz Lopez. The review is expected to be completed next month.

To recall, Lopez in the same month last year ordered the suspension and closure of some 26 mining operations for alleged environmental violations. Of these firms, 13 have appealed to the Office of the President (OP), while the rest filed their appeal to the DENR.

In response to President Rodrigo Duterte's call for due process before implementing Lopez's orders, MICC decided to conduct its own review of the matter.

When asked if it's possible for these orders to be lifted and just be replaced by penalties, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said "yes".

"That's a possibility," Cimatu told reporters.

Cimatu mentioned that most of the violations that these mining companies have commited have something to do with cutting trees without permission and failing to treat rivers that were polluted by mine waste.

He then agreed that some of the offense used by Lopez as reasons to suspend and shutdown companies could be dealt by penalties and continuous monitoring.

Cimatu already stressed before that the decision – whether to reverse or uphold Lopez’s order – that will come out in March is going to come from the DENR and will be final and executory.

This, according to him, would no longer need approval by the MICC or the OP.

Meanwhile, Jonas Leones, the newly designated DENR spokesperson, said the DENR will not allow new mining projects in the country until the Philippine Mining Act is amended.

This, as the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) recently came up with a roadmap suggesting to amend the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 in a way that the government will get more revenue from mining activities as well as require miners to do progressive rehabilitation.

Pushing for a new fiscal regime in mining can pave the way for the lifting of the ban on new mining projects.

In 2012, former President Benigno Aquino III signed an Executive Order (EO) 79 on mining wherein no new mineral agreements shall be approved until a legislation rationalizing existing revenue sharing schemes and mechanisms shall have taken effect.