Miners slam DENR audit process

By Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star) | Updated September 23, 2016 - 12:00am
http://www.philstar.com/business/2016/09/23/1626344/miners-slam-denr-audit-process

Presence of anti-mining groups questioned

MANILA, Philippines - Mining stakeholders slammed yesterday the audit process of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on the industry, a few days before the official announcement of its results.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) has questioned the manner by which the department conducted its audit, emphasizing that known anti-mining civil society organizations and their allied grassroots organizations were included in the audit teams.

“The mines audit conducted were not totally impartial,” COMP legal and policy vice president Ronald Recidoro said.

While Environment Secretary Gina Lopez ordered the inclusion of third party experts in the audit teams, the Comp maintained the lack of experts to assess the social acceptability of the mine operations.

“None of the CSO representatives included in the audit teams were expert in any field that may be relevant to the audit process,” Recidoro said.

He added the anti-mining CSOs who were disproportionately represented in the audit teams were allegedly harassing the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Environmental Management Bureau representatives when they have favorable findings on the mining project.

“We are concerned that the presence of the CSO representatives opposed to large-scale mining in the audit team will unduly influence results of the audit, specifically community satisfaction and social acceptability,” Recidoro said.

The COMP stressed that regular mine audit protocols were not observed, adding that several mining projects have been suspended prior to the start of the actual audit.

“Several of our members have complained that procedures to ensure fairness and transparency in the audit were absent, including the conduct of an exit audit conference where the DENR would have informed the company about initial findings,” he said.

Earlier, the Comp welcomed the audit of the government, saying that it would weed out the irresponsible miners and highlight the significant contributions of responsible miners to the communities.

“But in moving forward, we ask for future mine audits conducted by the DENR to be kept impartial, free from any bias, and involving only DENR personnel and acknowledged experts in the fields relevant in the review,” he said.

The environment chief is currently out of the country and cannot be reached for further comment.

Meanwhile, 22 mining companies are in possible trouble after the DENR has confirmed that more than half of the country’s 40 metallic mines are recommended for suspension following the end of the month-long audit.

Environment Undersecretary Leo Jasareno, head of the audit team, said 12 mining firms are on the verge of suspension, on top of the 10 companies that were already stopped.