Eastern Samar island residents file case vs outgoing DENR chief, 4 other officials

TACLOBAN CITY –  Three residents of Manicani island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar have filed a petition for “continuing mandamus” against Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and four other DENR officials at the Court of Appeals in Cebu City.

The petitioners also asked for the implementation of  a  2002 DENR order suspending the operations of Hinatuan Mining Corporation (HMC). They also want the CA to issue a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO).
The case was filed by Rebecca Destajo, Marcial Samooc and Rosalinda Bergado, who are all residents of Brgy. Buenavista in Manicani Island, where over a million metric tons of nickel ore are currently stockpiled and slowly being shipped out to China.

The three are members of Progressive Manicani Island Society (Promisi), an organization of Manicani residents opposing the transport of stockpile from the island.

Aside from Paje, also named respondents in the case were Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo Jasareno, MGB regional director in Eastern Visayas Nonita Caguioa, DENR regional director Leonardo Siballuca, and Marlon Ortiguesa, the protected area supervisor of Guiuan Marine Reserve Protected Landscape and Seascape.

A writ of continuing mandamus is issued by a court in an environmental case that directs a government agency or officer to perform an act or series of acts decreed in a judgment and will remain effective until judgment is fully satisfied. It also allows the court to issue a TEPO that is effective for 72 hours if there is an extreme urgency to issue an environmental protection order.

The case stemmed from three Ore Transport Permit (OTP) issued by MGB that allowed the mining company transport 62,000 metric tons of nickel ore to China where the company that buys low grade nickel ore is based.

“This OTP is issued based on the Letter of Authority to Disposed Nickel Ore Stockpiles of MGB Central Office dated July 1, 2014 as these materials may cause siltation and water pollution along the seashore,” the permit indicated.

Caguioa said in an earlier interview that she allowed the transport of nickel ore stockpile because it poses a danger to the community from landslide especially that there is already a crack on it.

In their petition, Promisi is asking the court to implement the suspension order issued by then DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez in November 13, 2002. It said the respondents “failed to perform their legally mandated duties” by issuing OTP and Mineral Ore Export Permit despite the existing suspension against mining activities in the island.

“The DENR was remiss of its expressed functions when despite the pendency of its 2002 suspension order against mining operations in Manicani Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar, it failed to keep MGB and other agencies under it in tow to ensure the faithful observance of its order,” the petition said.

The petition added that when DENR issued the suspension order, it was done in keeping with its function as primary agency responsible for the “conservation and management of the country’s natural resources in line with the declared policy of sustainable use, development, management, renewal, and conservation of the country’s natural resources.”

Manicani is a small island off the coast of Guiuan, Eastern Samar. It has a land area of 1.165 hectares and a population of over 3,000. With a rich biodiversity from mangrove species to rich marine resources, the island has been declared as part of the Guiuan Protected Landscape and Seascape under Presidential Proclamation 469 issued in 1994.

Under the said proclamation, Manicani Island becomes part of the Guiuan Marine Reserve, which makes it under the control and administration of the DENR in coordination with the local government units, which form part of the Protected Areas Management Board. — APG, GMA News