Furious over MGB ‘red tape’: Surigao Norte islanders demand extension of firm’s mining permit

Bundok Mineral Resources employees at work on Masapilid Island in Surigao del Norte. PHOTO FROM LINDIANRESOURCES.COM.AU

SURIGAO CITY, Philippines—About 1,000 islanders on Monday demonstrated outside the regional office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Surigao City, voicing anger over what they claimed were bureaucratic red tape and anomalies that affect their mining jobs.

Led by their village chairmen, residents of Masapilid Island in the municipality of Placer, Surigao del Norte, presented the MBG a petition calling for the extension of the exploration permit of Bundok Mineral Resources Corp. (BMRC). The petition was addressed to President Aquino, MGB officials and Surigao del Norte Governor Sol Matugas.

BMRC’s exploration activities on its 1,480 hectare concession—covering some 80 percent of the island’s total land area— have ground to a halt since October 3, following a temporary suspension order issued by MGB regional director Roger de Dios due to the expiration of the company’s permit to operate.

The suspension left some 100 workers out of work.

But the Australian-owned mining company said the MGB failed to act for almost two years on its application for a renewal of its exploration permit.

Lakandula village chairman Eutiquio Saga, one of the island’s six village leaders who led the rally, said it was clear MGB failed to act on the BMRC’s application “in a timely manner” and that such “bureaucratic gridlock undermines one of the region’s job generator”—the mining industry.

“This is no joke for us because they (MGB officials) are playing with our jobs… with our lives,” Saga told the Inquirer.

Some 28 mining companies operate in the Caraga Region, most of them involved in nickel and gold extraction. The mining industry accounts for some 60 percent of the region’s exports, and employs thousands of workers.

Late last month, hundreds of residents from the “nickel island” of Nonoc also descended on the MGB office here to protest what they called the “anomalous” refusal of its then director Alilo Ensomo to grant nickel operator Shuley Mine ore transport permits, or OTPs, despite two separate court decisions validating the company’s operations and ordering the agency to issue the permits. Ensomo’s defiance of the court orders left some 1,400 Nonoc workers jobless for 14 months.

BMRC signed a joint venture with the San Manuel Mining Corp. (SMMC) in 2010 to operate the Masapilid Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) No. 004-91-XIII. Each MPSA is granted by law a maximum of nine years to engage in exploration, which SMMC had already exhausted prior to BMRC’s entry.

Documents obtained from the MGB showed that from December of 2010 to April 2011, BMRC submitted pertinent requirements regarding its appeal for a third exploration renewal application. MGB’s central office elevated the company’s application on March 23, 2011, to its mother agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Last August, however, the MGB central office said BMRC’s application had been denied, taking the agency a year and five months to decide. It anchored its decision on MBRC’s failure to submit a Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility.

BMRC filed a motion for reconsideration on Sept. 21, 2012, requesting that it be given an extension of two years so that it could finally submit the necessary document. Before the motion could be acted upon, however, the agency’s regional office issued the suspension order on October 3.

De Dios said BMRC and SMMC would be barred from any exploration activity in the contract area “until such time that all requirements for the DMPF shall have been complied [with] and approval of extension of Exploration Period shall be granted by the DENR Secretary.”

Village chairman Saga found the bureaucratic process “unnecessarily tedious and mind-boggling.”

“All we understand are gut issues—we can’t eat all these technicalities and legalities,” Saga said. “All we want is a more responsive bureaucracy because our jobs are on the line here.”

De Dios, the newly installed MGB chief, said BMRC’s appeal for extension of its exploration permit may still be granted by the environment secretary.

“Whether they (BMRC) go back to exploration, it’s now in the hands of the secretary, who has the sole discretion whether to allow further exploration,” De Dios said.

Masapilid Island, geopolitically divided between Placer and Taganaan towns, has around 5,000 residents, most of whom rely on fishing as primary source of livelihood.

Most of the local fishermen, however, use “liba-liba” or Danish seine, which involves the use of fine nets, to compensate for the increasingly dwindling fish supply.