DENR urged to revoke deal on CamSur mining activities

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been urged to revoke an agreement it had forged with a local corporate entity that empowers this “super” corporation to virtually take charge of mining activities in a sizable part of Camarines Sur.

The agreement is allegedly in gross violation of the DENR’s own recognition of the “critical role” of local government units (LGUs) in the processing of mining-related agreements in their respective localities.

It is also claimed that the memorandum of agreement (MOA) that the DENR, through its Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), had forged with the Partido Development Administration (PDA), violates a new DENR policy restricting the powers of LGUs over the grant of permits to small-scale miners, according to CamSur Governor Luis Raymund Villafuerte in a recent letter to DENR Secretary Ramon Paje.

Villafuerte had warned Paje in his letter that the MOA likewise transgresses four laws, and that key DENR and PDA officials could be held criminally and administratively liable for violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, for forging this pact that, among others, deprives the provincial government or its Sangguniang Panlalawigan of regulatory powers over all mining activities in CamSur; and compels the MGB to abdicate its recommendatory and advisory functions to a three-member panel composed of PDA and bureau representatives.

“The MOA is legally infirm because it usurps the powers of the province of Camarines Sur as a local government unit it is an abdication of the powers of the MGB; and it unlawfully authorizes the PDA to undertake ultra vires acts,” Villafuerte said. “Thus, it clearly usurps the power granted unto the province of Camarines Sur as an LGU.”

Ultra vires is a legal term for acts committed beyond the legal power or authority of a person or corporation.

He said this MOA that empowers the PDA to help oversee mining activities in its area of jurisdiction – the fourth district represented by Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella – further violates RA 3019 in “granting unwarranted benefits or advantage to the PDA, which is not authorized in its Charter to act on requests for mining applications or enter into joint venture deals with private groups on mining-related businesses.”

Fuentebella’s son Felix took his oath in 2007 as chairman of the PDA, which was created via Republic Act 7820 to oversee the economic development of the municipalities in the fourth congressional district that is better known as the Partido area. Just recently, he was appointed deputy secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Coordination Council (HUDCC).

This MGB-PDA MOA was signed by PDA administrator Rosa Catolico and Leo Jasareno, the acting director of the DENR’s MGB.

It covers, among others, the PDA municipalities of Tigaon, Goa, San Jose, Lagonoy, Tinambac, Siruma, Presentacion and Garchitorena. Also included is Caramoan, the small town on the tip of the Caramoan Peninsula that is being packaged by the CamSur provincial government as a pristine island paradise for eco-tourists and adventure seekers.

Villafuerte said the MOA also contradicts the new policy pronouncement of the DENR against giving LGUs the sole power to issue permits for small-scale mining.

The DENR recently announced that a legal opinion issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) has ruled that small-scale mining should be governed by Republic Act 7076, or the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1992, and not by Presidential Decree 1899 issued by the late President Marcos.

In his letter to Paje, Villafuerte said this MOA runs afoul of RA 7076, Republic Act 7942 (or Philippine Mining Act of 1995) and RA 7160 (Local Government Code) as well as the DENR’s own Department Administrative Order 2010-21, which separately provides that the DENR and MGB should either consult with, or seek prior consent from, the concerned LGUs and/or Sanggunians (legislative boards of provinces, cities or municipalities) with regard to mineral exploration agreements or mining or quarrying permits to be awarded to private entities in their respective localities.