Gold mining firm raps Alvarez

A gold mining firm has asked the Makati Regional Trial Court to cite Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez in contempt for alleged bad faith and deception.

In a statement, South East Mindanao Gold Corp. (SEM) said it filed a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the proposed proclamation of a 8,100-hectare mineral reservation at Mt. Diwalwal but Alvarez had posthaste declared it as such by issuing Department Memorandum Order 2002-09.

The company said Makati RTC Judge Cesar Santamaria affirmed its vested rights over the contested area.

However, it said the judge denied the prayed for TRO since "there is no material and substantial invasion of the property rights of the petitioner at this time."

SEM said Alvarez allegedly committed bad faith and deception when barely three days after the hearing last Aug. 9, Alvarez issued DAO No. 2002-18 declaring a state of emergency at the Mt. Diwalwal gold-rush area in Monkayo, Compostela Valley.

Through the same DAO, the company said Alvarez seized control and took possession of the area and decreed that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, through the Natural Resources Development Corp. (NRDC), undertake mining development and utilization activities there.

SEM claimed this was contrary to Alvarez’s earlier pleadings that public hearings would first be conducted to ascertain existing mining rights so that in the event of a presidential proclamation, the company’s rights would be recognized and respected.

"But what did the secretary actually do?" it asked.

The company lamented that Alvarez "went on an illegal rampage, eschewed the legal process and usurped presidential powers" by declaring an "emergency situation" and appropriated SEM’s mining area at Mt. Diwalwal.

In less than two weeks from such a declaration and the stoppage of all mining operations at Mt. Diwalwal, SEM said Alvarez allowed the resumption of large-scale mining activities and "illegally" awarded mining service contracts to cooperatives, big miners and other individuals in the mining area covered by SEM’s EP 133 and MPSA Application No. 128.

In what it described as an attempt to comply with the provisions of the law, SEM said Mines and Geosciences Bureau director Horacio Ramos, in a paid newspaper announcement, recommended to Alvarez that President Arroyo proclaim a mineral reservation in the area.