After confirming his support to Duterte’s opposing stance on open-pit mining, new Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said he would recommend providing “clear-cut” guidelines tackling the controversial extractive activity.
This is one of the priority implementations, Inquirer reports, Cimatu want to execute in addition to the existing executive order institutionalizing guidelines in the mining sector.
However, Cimatu, during the confirmation hearing last Wednesday, said there was no law yet that discusses the employment of open-pit mining, whether it’s in or outside the context of the existing suspension ex-DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) Chief Gina Lopez piloted during her 10-month service in office.
Moreover, Cimatu will meet with the members of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) later this week to further discuss the implications of open-pit mining as well as the possible ban on the exportation of raw minerals.
Earlier, Duterte extended his support to the open-pit ban limited only to the country’s top nickel ore exporter on the ground of environmental damages but has considered other miners “enough elbow room for eventual change” in economic or agricultural areas.
This month, Cimatu confirmed that DENR will back the president’s decision on the mining technique.
“There is an order from the President to ban open-pit mining and we will abide by the instruction of the president to stop open-pit mining in the future,” Cimatu said.
“We will also wait for the result of the MICC study,” Cimatu added.
The Environment Chief also said that decisions by the DENR henceforth would be “science-based” with the help of the MICC. For the time being, no major policies can be expected yet from the Environment offices until the end of the year.
