By: Ronnel W. Domingo 04:28 AM September 23rd, 2016
Large-scale miners on Thursday cast
doubt at the fairness of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’
(DENR) audit of all mining companies in the country, the results of which are
expected to be finally made public on Monday.
“The mines audit conducted were not
totally impartial,” said Ronald Recidoro, the Chamber of Mines of the
Philippines’ (COMP) vice president for legal and policy matters.
The COMP lamented the inclusion of
representatives from antimining civil society organizations (CSO)—such as the
Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)—in the audit teams, as ordered by Environment
Secretary Gina Lopez.
The ATM is backing a proposed law
that Sen. Risa Hontiveros filed last month and which antimining advocates
called the Alternative Minerals Management Bill, intended to replace the Mining
Act of 1995.
Recidoro said COMP members reported
that CSO “did nothing but air their opposition to the mining project.”
“None of the CSO representatives
included in the audit teams were expert in any field that may be relevant to
the audit process,” the lawyer said.
Disproportionate
“The antimining CSOs who were
disproportionately represented in the audit teams were allegedly harassing the
Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)
representatives when they have favorable findings on the mining project,” he
added.
Recidoro also said regular mine
audit protocols were not observed and that there was no qualified expert to
assess the social acceptability of the mine operations being audited.
“Several mining projects were even
suspended prior to the start of the actual audit,” he said. “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.”
“Several mining projects were even
suspended prior to the start of the actual audit,” he said. “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.”
Undue influence
“We are deeply 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,” he added.
The COMP has earlier expressed
support for the Duterte administration’s moves toward strict implementation of
environmental protection laws, saying that its members follow such regulations.
In August, COMP president Benjamin
Philip G. Romualdez said the group member’s “had nothing to fear” amid the
ongoing audit.
Premature
On Wednesday, Lopez expressed anger
over what she described as the premature disclosure of the results of the audit
for the coal mine of Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC).
She called out Jonathan P. Bulos, regional
director of EMB Region 6, for giving to SMPC copies of audit reports that
apparently show results that are favorable to the company.
“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,” Recidoro said.
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