NEWS

By Karol Ilagan | Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism | April 14, 2022 11:02AM

NARRA, PALAWAN – Teofilo Tredez knows about the ills of mining like the back of his hands. A farmer-leader and an environmental para-enforcer, he works with a nongovernment organization that has prompted the closure and suspension of at least two nickel mines in his town.

“Ang ginagawa nila ay kunin ang minerals at sirain ang kalikasan. Maiiwan sa amin ay basura, graba, kasabay ng laterite na mapupunta sa aming sakahan (What they do is get the minerals and destroy nature. What is left to us are waste, gravel, and laterite that goes to our farms),” he said on an October morning while walking along a river that was inundated by mine waste in 2012.

Tredez, 55, lives in Narra, named after the sturdy national tree, which like all towns in southern Palawan has been a host to nickel mines that threaten their farmlands and the province’s pristine natural reserves.

Citinickel Mines and Development Corp., the company found responsible for polluting waterways on top of mining in a restricted zone, was already suspended when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) launched an audit and moved to shut its operations along with 27 other mines in 2017.

The trail of violations documented by Tredez’s group, the Palawan NGO Network Inc. (PNNI), was so compelling that the landmark audit, led by the late Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, had to affirm its findings. Five years on, the mine audit remains an unfinished business with closure orders on 15 of the 28 mines still on appeal. None of the mines ever stopped operating, however.

If it weren’t for the strong network of environmental defenders in Palawan, the infractions of Citinickel and other mines in the country’s last ecological frontier would not have been acted upon. In fact the full reports produced by the Lopez audit have not been made public up to now. Some high-ranking mining officials told PCIJ that they themselves did not see the audit.

Moreover, the project-level reports from the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) review of large-scale mines that cost taxpayers P72 million were said to be covered by executive privilege. The council entered into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the mining firms whose operations were subjected to review.

With the Duterte administration lifting the moratorium on new mining agreements and the ban on open-pit mining in 2021, environmental advocates were worried that the opaqueness of the process would worsen the already weak monitoring and regulation of mines.

Transparency advocates likewise argue that it’s all the more important to open mining to scrutiny if the government will accept new applications.

Lawyer Eirene Jhone Aguila, co-convener of the Right to Know, Right Now! (R2KRN) Coalition, said the process should even be more open so that the public would know whether the violations found in the DENR audit have been addressed.

Closure order on 15 out of 28 mines still on appeal

In March 2021, PCIJ requested a copy of the full audit reports for each of the 28 mines ordered suspended and closed by the DENR in 2017. The office referred PCIJ to the MGB, which referred PCIJ back to the DENR.

In a recent interview, MGB’s Marcial Mateo, chief of the Mine Safety, Environment and Social Development Division, told PCIJ that the reports were not for public use because of “pending legal issues.”

“Merong pang nag-appeal sa OP (Office of the President). Merong appeal dito sa DENR. So siguro kaya hindi pa siya pina-public ‘yung report dito sa mine audit (Some appealed before the OP [Office of the President]. Some appealed here with the DENR. So maybe that’s why they have not released the mine audit reports to the public),” Mateo said.

Of the 28 mines, nine had their suspension or closure orders lifted while four obtained stay orders. As of posting time, the orders issued against the remaining 15 mines were still on appeal.

Three of the 15 mines – Mt. Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp. in Eastern Samar, Krominco Inc. in Dinagat Islands, and Vista Buena Mining Corp./Wellex Mining Corp. also in Dinagat Islands – filed a motion for reconsideration with the DENR.

At the time of the interview in early March, Mining Tenements Management Division Chief Danilo Deleña said the MGB was drafting a memo to the DENR secretary requesting the lifting of the suspension of Mt. Sinai and Krominco.

One of Mt. Sinai’s shareholders is Vicente T. Lao, who also owns Vicente T. Lao Construction, one of the leading contractors of infrastructure projects implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways. The company has been among the top contractors of the DPWH since the Arroyo administration, according to a PCIJ report.

Wellex Mining Corp. is owned by The Wellex Group Inc. of the Gatchalian family, whose members include Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who is running for a second Senate term in the May 2022 elections. Krominco’s registration papers are not available.

Twelve of the 15 mines meanwhile filed an appeal with the Office of the President. Mateo said some mines preferred to lodge their appeals before the president because they did not want to do so before the then Lopez-led DENR, which had already moved to shut their operations. PCIJ requested information on these mines. The MGB said the release of the information was still for clearance with the division concerned.

Deleña said the MGB had submitted a memo to the DENR listing the actions taken by these 12 mines in compliance with a November 2020 order of former environment secretary Roy Cimatu, the ex-general who replaced Lopez when her appointment was rejected by the Commission on Appointments in 2017. The DENR then submitted the memo to the Office of the President in October 2021, but no action has been taken yet.

Source: ABS CBN News