DENR defers to DILG on Zambo mining issue

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will not seek legal opinion from the Department of Justice on the open pit mining ban in Zamboanga del Norte, Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje said in a phone interview.

There is no need since the agency supervising local government units (LGUs), which is the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), has a clear stand on the ordinance, he said.

DENR is thus taking the position of the DILG that LGUs should rethink local ordinances such as the open pit ban, which are contrary to national policies.

“When South Cotabato handed down an open pit ban last year, Interior Secretary Jessie Robredo said in a letter to South Cotabato that this was against national laws. We support that position,” Paje said. “We will defer to our fellow Cabinet secretary since DILG deals directly with LGUs.”

A copy of Robredo’s letter to South Cotabato said the prohibition on open pit mining “is not in accord with Republic Act No. 7942, otherwise known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which does not expressly prohibit the use of the open pit mining method.”

Zamboanga del Norte’s ordinance, which took effect on November 6 after three publications in local newspapers, is said to be more severe than that of South Cotabato, which threatens the $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project.

Various parties, including the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), have criticized such ordinances.

Earlier this month, TVIRD went to court in Dipolog City seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) “and/or a preliminary injunction” to prevent the implementation of open pit ban in Zamboanga del Norte.

The ordinance in Zamboanga del Norte gives TVIRD one year to wrap up its Canatuan copper-gold project.

TVIRD, which operates a minerals development operation in Sitio (settlement) Canatuan, Barangay (village) Tabayo, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, filed the case “against any officers, agents, employees, representatives and anyone acting on behalf and within the control of Zamboanga del Norte from implementing an ordinance banning open pit mining in the province.”

In its pleading, TVIRD “assailed the Zamboanga del Norte ordinance as unconstitutional and invalid.”

The firm argued that the ordinance violates the due process, equal protection and non-impairment of contracts clauses of the 1987 Constitution.

The company noted that the ordinance was contrary to the applicable provisions of the Local Government Code and the Mining Act, and runs counter to the public policies espoused in these laws.

“In addition to affecting the company directly, (the ordinance) would adversely affect the indigenous people who own the ancestral domain where the mining project is situated, the communities and barangays that benefit through the operations’ social development programs, and the government, as it stands to lose revenue from the mining operations. It may also hamper its policy to encourage foreign and private sector investment in the mining industry,” TVIRD stressed.

Also threatened is the plan of Philex Mining Corp., the country’s biggest miner in terms of capitalization, to explore the possibility of reviving the Sibutad project in Zamboanga del Norte.—Riza T. Olchondra