IN THE KNOW: Ebdane case

IN JULY 2012, Consolidated Mines Inc. (CMI) filed graft charges in the Office of the Ombudsman against Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and other Zambales officials for allowing small-scale miners to take over its mines in the province and to haul off its stockpile of minerals.

CMI president Benicio Eusebio accused Ebdane and other Zambales officials of granting permits to small-scale miners to take over the company’s mines in 2011 and to transport chromite fines, which were left over from 50 years of chromite mining in the company’s Masinloc site.

CMI, a company engaged in the mining, milling and trade of gold, silver, copper and other minerals, said it holds the mineral rights in the area, which was covered by the Coto Chromite Project in Sitio Coto, Masinloc town, known as Coto Mines. Coto Chromite has a mineral production sharing agreement now pending renewal by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

The Central Luzon Environmental Management Bureau said the permits issued by Ebdane to six small-scale mines were invalid and that their owners were operating illegally.

It added that the small-scale miners should not have been operating in the first place because of the lack of environmental clearance.

On July 23, 2013, the Supreme Court granted a temporary environmental protection order requested by 10 Zambales residents who sought a stop to the issuance and use of small- scale mining permits (SSMPs) in their area by Ebdane and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The 10 Masinloc residents filed the 35page petition on July 17, 2013, saying that Ebdane had issued all 93 SSMPs on July 12, 2011.

In issuing the permits, Ebdane invoked Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1899, but the petitioners said the PD had been repealed by the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991 or Republic Act No. 7076.