Published June 9, 2017, 10:00 PM By Madelaine B.
Miraflor
Now that environmentalist Regina Paz
Lopez is no longer with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR), uncertainties loom as to whether the review that Mining Industry
Coordinating Council (MICC) is supposed to conduct on mining operations to
appease the miners and the stakeholders will ever proceed.
To recall, the MICC, co-chaired by
the secretaries of DENR and Department of Finance (DOF), is set to conduct a
technical review on all mining operations in the country to address the
concerns regarding DENR’s earlier decision to shut down and suspend a total of
28 mine sites.
Chamber of Mines of the Philippines
(COMP), the most vocal critic of Lopez, even thanked the MICC then for deciding
to create a technical working group to study the closure and suspension orders
imposed by the former environment secretary to several mining firms.
Finance Undersecretary Bayani
Agabin, who heads the DOF Legal Services Group, earlier said the MICC wants to
start the technical review in February or “as soon as” possible.
But it has already been more than a
month since Lopez failed to get the confirmation from the Commission on
Appointments (CA) and the MICC is yet to update the public about the review.
Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)
assistant director Danilo Uykieng said there is “no update yet” as to when the
MICC will finally start the audit.
“No update or meeting schedule yet.
The last meeting was the short-listing of the experts for the technical team
and budget recommendation for approval,” Uykieng told Business Bulletin, adding
that the said meeting happened in April, even before Lopez was bypassed by the
CA on May 2.
In a separate text exchange, Agabin
confirmed that the MICC has not yet started the controversial review.
“We are still vetting the members of
the review team and finalizing the Terms of Reference for the review. After
this, we need to procure their services following government procurement
procedures,” Agabin, who also heads the Legal Affairs Group and Revenue
Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) of the DOF, also told Business Bulletin.
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