A party-list lawmaker on Thursday criticized the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s (DENR) plan to lift the ban on open-pit mining.
Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna, in a news statement, slammed the announcement of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu that the ban on open-pit mining will be reversed.
“It seems that the secretary is hard at work in reversing the progressive stances of the agency under [former Environment Secretary] Gina Lopez. A few months into his unencumbered confirmation to his post, Secretary Cimatu has killed off one of the best moves of the department in history, to ban open-pit mining,” Zarate said.
Earlier, Cimatu said the technical working group (TWG) of the Mining and Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) has endorsed the lifting of the ban on open-pit mining in the Philippines, provided that the law and regulations governing the process will be “strictly enforced” by the DENR.
In April the DENR issued Department Order 2017-10, imposing a ban on the open-pit method of extraction for copper, gold, silver and complex ores.
However, in August, the MICC tasked its TWG on economic concerns and on environmental protections and legislation to review and formulate the MICC policy recommendations in relation to the open-pit mining ban.
According to Zarate, open-pit mining has caused massive environmental destruction.
“Entire mountains were excavated, whole forests leveled and tributaries were made trash bins by mining corporations all over the country. It is only prudent, at the very least, that the government suspend open-pit mining operations pending an investigation,” the lawmaker said.
“But instead, Secretary Cimatu parroted the position of mining corporations. To side with big business is disappointing for the environment secretary,” Zarate added.
He also reminded the secretary of President Duterte’s promise to put an end to massive environmental damage from mining.
President Duterte’s policy directives on mining include: improving the regulatory functions of the government on mining; investigating and resolving issues concerning security and safety in small-scale mining; addressing the adverse environmental and social impacts of mining, particularly in coastal areas; strengthening regulations on open-pit mining; and strictly implementing the mining law and other environmental laws and regulations to ensure the protection of the environment.
The Makabayan bloc in the lower chamber, which include Bayan Muna, has already filed “House Bill 2715 or the People’s Mining Bill to stop massive environmental destruction or at least drastically minimized by overhauling environmental and mining laws through the junking of the Mining Act of 1995.
However, at the House of Representatives, the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995 is slowly gaining ground, to be replaced by a mining law that is “pro-people, pro-environment, and will boost national industrialization,” Zarate said.
“House Bill 2715 or the People’s Mining Bill along with other alternative mining bills are currently under a Technical Working Group to hammer out a replacement to the existing mining law,” he said.
“All bills recognize the critical flaws of the Mining Act of 1995 that has resulted to the massive plunder and devastation of our mineral lands for more than 20 years, including the ban on open pit mining. We hope that finally, Congress would see the need to scrap the Mining Act of 1995,” Zarate added.
