Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu is yet to make a decision whether or not to lift the open-pit mine suspension as the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) is set to meet today for the release of the results of its study seeking the legalities of such a ban in the country.
Cimatu told reporters on Monday that the MICC have arrived at a final decision on the open-pit mine suspension. A technical working group (TWG) under the interagency have presented the study on the controversial ban led by the Environment Chief and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
Like Cimatu, Dominguez earlier said there is no law in the Constitution containing open-pit mining ban.
“I have to see what the recommendation is from the TWG and we’ll certainly consider their ideas. You know in the first place, people don’t know that open-pit mining is not against the law,” Dominguez said in an interview with the Manila Bulletin.
While confirming that such mining ban is not entirely prohibited in the country, he added that mining companies must follow-up on rehabilitation efforts in their respective mining operations.
“People have to follow the law on the rehabilitation, that is why the law requires a certain amount of money to be set aside for the rehabilitation. I’m not saying [the ban] there is no legal basis, but it is not prohibited,” Dominguez said.
Meanwhile, Finance Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin said the open-pit mine ban was up for review this week by former Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez, who earlier appealed the suspension case with the TWG of the MICC.
MICC is set to discuss whether the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) suspension order should be reversed or not.
When asked whether the MICC will arrive at a favorable conclusion, Agabin, in a separate interview, said he is yet to find out the “inclination of the body” but is expecting “a healthy discussion during the meeting.”
However, Cimatu will not immediately greenlight the TWG’s recommendation based on the result of the meeting, even if it means the moratorium has to be lifted.
“The decision is either a yes or no and second is how to implement it,” he said, “[Once we get the results from the MICC] we will be making a study especially on the conditions and provisions because it can’t be imposed just like that.”
He confirmed his support for the controversial open-pit mine ban during his confirmation as the new Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary with the Commission of Appointments earlier this month.
“We will eventually abide by the instruction of the president to stop open-pit mining in the future,” Cimatu said.
“He’s [President Duterte] very emphatic on the effect of the open-pit mining and the companies must talk to the communities to find out and help them,” he told reporters on the sidelines during the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention of the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS-COP12) in Pasay City on Monday.
The open-pit mining suspension is originally commenced by Lopez during her 10-month service in office after she was rejected by the Commission on Appointments as the official DENR Secretary in May this year.
As Cimatu is newly appointed DENR chief, it is still under his power to make significant changes in the suspension order himself.
