Inactive Marcos-era mining firm in Mindanao shuttered by gov’t

MANILA, Philippines—The Governance Commission for Government Owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG) has officially shuttered long inactive North Davao Mining Corp. (NDMC) nearly three decades after it ceased operations.

In a Dec. 15 memorandum order, GCG Chair Samuel Dagpin Jr., as well as Commissioners Michael Cloribel and Marites Doral reclassified NDMC as a “dissolved/liquidated/inactive” government-owned and/or -controlled corporation (GOCC).

Mindanao-based NDMC was initially established as a private mining firm in 1973. NDMC was acquired by the national government in 1986 and then lined up for privatization after it was sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

NDMC had allegedly benefitted from behest loans sponsored by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

However, the GCG noted that NDMC stopped operations in 1992 “due to serious business reverses,” which included “low metal prices, adverse economic conditions and internal management problems,” according to the website of Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC).

NDMC had operated copper and gold mines in eastern Mindanao.

In 2003, the corporate regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also revoked NDMC’s certificate of registration due to its failure to file reports for the years 1997 to 2002.

Under Republic Act (RA) No. 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, the GCG recommends the closure of “dormant and non-performing” GOCCs, while also classifying a number of state-run corporations as “inactive or non-operational.”

TSB