Party-list asks SC to stop DMCI unit from ‘leveling Zambales mountain’

A party-list group led by Representative Angelo Palmones on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to stop a DMCI-owned mining firm from cutting trees and leveling a mountain in Zambales.

 

In a petition for a writ of kalikasan, Agham Party-list said the high court should issue a temporary environmental protection order to stop DMCI operations in Bolitoc, Sta. Cruz town in Zambales.

The group said the firm's operations in the area were causing "massive environmental destruction and damage in Sta. Cruz, Zambales and the nearby towns of Zambales and Pangasinan."

 

The group cited a geohazard map from the Philippine Information Agency to emphasize that the mountain being leveled in Bolitoc protects the flood- and landslide-prone communities in the town against coastal water swells and surges.

 

The group also asked the high court to issue a production order to compel the DMCI Holdings Inc. to produce documents to show their authority and permission to cut down trees and level the mountain.

 

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Philippine Port Authority should likewise be ordered to produce pertinent documents related to DMCI's environmental compliance certificate (ECC), foreshore lease permit, and port permit, the petition said.

 

"(The high court should) direct the DENR, [Environmental Management Bureau ] and the PPA... to protect and preserve the remaining mountain trees and the mountain in Bolitoc, Sta. Cruz, Zambales," the petitioner said, adding DMCI should likewise be ordered to restore the mountain.

 

Palmones said he personally inspected the mountain and discovered it was "literally cut and leveled and the remnants thereof were pushed to the sea."

The lawmaker also found out that DMCI was using heavy earth-moving machines to cut and level the mountain.

 

The party-list argued that while DMCI was able to secure a permit to establish a port in the area, the permit did not authorize its mining firm to "cut, much less flatten a mountain, and dump the remnants thereof into the sea for its port construction."

The group added that even the ECC that DMCI secured was only a "planning tool and not a permit."

 

The group said DMCI is still required to get separate and pertinent permits and clearances from concerned agencies.

 

DMCI Holdings Inc. president Isidro Consunji told GMA News Online in a text message that they have been operating in the area for more than four years.

 

"Acoje [Mines] has used the same port since it started operations for more than 50 years, so I don't know why they don't want the port there. There's no better port after Masinloc," he added.

 

The Acoje nickel project, located in Sta. Cruz, Zambales, is a three-way partnership among European Nickel PLC, Australian firm Rusina Mining NL, and DMCI Mining Corp. — JDS, GMA News