Review of mining operations closed by Gina Lopez begins

The Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) has started what it calls a “fact-finding and science-based” review of 26 mine sites former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez either suspended or shut down last year.

Onsite visits to the mine locations started this month, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Tuesday.

The first phase of the review covering legal, technical, and environmental concerns will be completed within three months, Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin, who represented the DOF at the MICC meeting on March 7, said.

The social and economic aspects of the study will be done in another three months as requested by the technical review teams (TRTs), Agabin noted.

“When we were looking at this, we set the period for review for three months. But when the teams were formed, the concern, especially on the economic study, is that they will need the inputs from the technical, the legal and the environment,” he said during the recent MICC meeting.

“If you will notice, the methodology for the social and economic aspects is that they will do a household survey. They were quite strict, the teams that we got. In fact, they didn‘t want to continue on if there will not be an honest-to-goodness scientific survey done within the affected communities. That’s how meticulous they are,” Agabin noted.

The experts comprising the teams are now in the field and commencing the review of the 26 mine sites, said Dr. Marian de los Angeles, the overall coordinator of the TRTs.

The TRTs are comprised of 25 experts, with the review process implemented and managed by the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP).

Agabin noted the review clusters are based on the types of minerals and locations:

• TRT 1—gold, copper, and nickel mines in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)

• TRT 2—iron and nickel mines in Central Luzon (Region III)

• TRT 3—chromite, nickel, and iron mines in Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) and CARAGA

• TRTs 4 and 5—nickel and chromite mines in CARAGA

“The TRTs are also expected to recommend measures that need to be instituted to avoid the recurrence of such inefficiencies/violations/damages, and to improve mining operations with a view to effectively safeguard the environment and protect the rights of resource-dependent communities,” the DOF said.

The second phase of the review focusing on the social and economic aspects will include a “social cost benefit analysis” and an “evaluation of the changes in the ecosystem” as well as a “more in-detail look into the equity aspects” of the mining operations, De Los Angeles said.

The review will center on the mines ordered closed and suspended by Lopez, who claimed the mining operations fell short of environmental standards.
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But Lopez was rejected by the Commission on Appointments (CA). Instead, the CA  approved the appointment of Roy Cimatu to head the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“The final report will be a consolidated one. We will not see individual reports for each of the mines. It’s going to be consolidated. It’s going to be general—the key results that will come out of the 26 mining sites,” Mercedita Sombilla, assistant secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said.

GMA News Online has reached out to the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) for comment, but no response has been received as of this posting. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News