Updated
July 4, 2018, 10:42 PM By
Madelaine B. Miraflor
The Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is yet to close to books on the issues
surrounding the mine closure and suspension orders that were issued by former
Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez more than a year ago.
Right now, the DENR and
the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) are on the process of
consolidating the results of their respective review on the appeals the mining
companies made to invalidate Lopez’s decision.
And according to
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, “the final result of the review will be made
available for disclosure by August”.
It was just three weeks
ago when MICC cleared 23 of 27 mining companies that were assessed for
compliance with state regulations.
To be specific, Finance
Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin, who chaired the last MICC meeting, said that
three nickel and one chromite mining operations did not pass the “criteria and
benchmark” set by the audit teams.
This, however, is not
yet final, with the body set to meet again on July 26 to finalize the
assessments.
“[The final audit
report is] being completed by MICC and once it’s completed, it will be passed
to me and I will already make a decision. They said that they will be able to
finish it this July,” Cimatu told reporters on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment