Defying DENR, Philex to spend on clean-up rather than pay fine

(Update Monday 4:48 p.m.) In the face of repeated demands by the government that it pay a P1 billion penalty, Philex Mining Corp. has announced that it will instead spend at least the same amount for rehabilitation and cleanup after its tailings pond spilled over 20 million metric tons of waste into nearby waterways. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been adamant that Philex pay the penalty in addition to doing the clean-up after the major breach in a tailings pond of its productive Padcal mine last August. DENR Secretary Ramon Paje last week denied Philex's appeal to allow it to just clean up rather than pay the fine. 

Philex responded on Monday with intransigence. “We cannot pay the fine. It was an accident, force majeure... In the general principle of law, this kind of accident is not punishable by penalty,” Philex spokesman Michael Toledo said in an interview Monday.

He said the company is exhausting all administrative remedies, “hopefully without resorting to court action.” Philex clean-up commitment

Philex made its clean-up commitment in a 25-page report and rehabilitation matrix it submitted to the DENR's Mines and Geosciences Bureau on November 22. Toledo said that the company is “more than willing to pay for anything and everything” for the cleanup and rehabilitation of the area.  Paje said the decision to deny Philex's appeal was relayed to Philex Mining on November 22, last Thursday, informing the miner that the DENR has come up with a resolution giving the company 45 days to settle the penalty.   “We told them that we are denying their petition not to pay the penalty,” said Paje. “The state has determined the impact to the environment and there is value to it and the state should collect that. They have 45 days to comply upon receipt of the letter." Philex is in the midst of cleaning up the area around its Padcal mine in Itogon, Benguet, after one of the mine’s tailings ponds spilled waste into nearby waterways on August 1 in what both the DENR and Philex have called the biggest mining disaster in the country's history, with at least 10 times more tailings released into waterways than the Marcopper leakage in 1996. The rehabilitation process began in October and will run for 26 weeks until April, according to a company statement. — BM/HS, GMA News