MICC forms 5 teams to review DENR closure, suspension orders – DOF

The Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) is forming five technical groups to review the closure and suspension orders issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on 28 mining operations across the country.

The target is to finish the review in three months, the Department of Finance said on Thursday.

The MICC technical working group (TWG) will form five groups, composed of technical experts, to carry out an “objective, fact-finding, science-based” assessment of the DENR orders. The he review will begin in March and is expected to be completed in three months.

The review teams “shall be independent and have no known conflict of interest” with the mining sector or any anti-mining non-government organization, in line with the organizational framework adopted by the TWG during its first meeting earlier this week.

The groups will go over the compliance of the 28 mine sites in relation to the applicable agreements, submissions, laws and regulations.
 
Each team will cover five aspects in relation to the mining operations, namely technical, legal, social, environmental and economic and how the operations impact the agricultural reform areas.
 
“This review is pursuant to Executive Order 79, and our thrust, and as required, every two years, the MICC should review the mining operations,” Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin said.

“The MICC is supposed to do, every two years, a multi-stakeholder review. So that’s what we are doing," Agabin said.
 
The TWG teams will begin its review focusing on the 28 mine sites suspended or shut down by the DENR earlier this month.
 
On top the closure and suspension orders, the DENR also canceled 75 mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs), many of which are still in the exploration stage.
 
Agabin noted the DENR will make available its audit findings to the MICC review teams.

The review of the five teams will be submitted to the MICC TWG. “The TWG shall then verify the technical report before the final presentation to the MICC,” he said.

"The MICC will present the findings and submit its recommendations to the Office of the President, which shall make a final decision on the DENR's closure and suspension orders," Agabin said.

Despite the creation of a multi-stakeholder review, Environment Secretary Gina Lopez said she is still the one who will make the decisions regarding the environment and emphasized that the MICC is only recommendatory. 

The multi-stakeholder review will still be discussed with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the DOF said. — Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News