Miners back Atienza on permit issuance

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines has expressed support for the move of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose L. Atienza to centralize the issuance of ore transport permits (OTP) in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

At the membership meeting of the Chamber of Mines last month, the problem concerning the proliferation of small-scale mining permits issued by local government units (LGUs) under a different label and without the knowledge of the DENR was brought to Atienza’s attention.

This prompted Atienza to issue a policy that henceforth, ore transport permits (OTP) would be solely issued by the DENR for monitoring purposes and to ensure the protection of the environment. 

Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez, president of the mining association, said last year the chamber brought to the attention of government certain discrepancies on nickel, chromite and iron ore imports of China from the export figures of these minerals released by the National Statistics Office. According to Romualdez, technical smuggling may have been committed by some unscrupulous miners or traders. 

The chamber said strict audit confirmation of the tonnage and grades of mineral exports contained in export manifests of exporters and traders should be undertaken by the Bureau of Customs.