Caraga group raps MGB move in protected area

BISLIG CITY — A Caraga group calling itself the "Citizens Log Watch" has alleged that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is set to open a large portion of a protected area to a mining company.

In a statement, Alfredo Reyes, the group’s chairman, said the protected area reportedly set to be open to Base Metals Resources Corp. is home to endangered species like the monkey-eating eagles.

Reyes said MGB director Horacio Ramos would implement the December 2002 decision of the Mines Adjudication Board, then headed by former Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez and Ramos himself.

Reyes, however, said that in December 1998, the MGB panel of arbitrators denied the MPSA application of Base Metals Resources based on a provision of Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act.

He said Section 19 (b) of RA 7942 states that "public or private works, including plantations or valuable crops, except upon written consent of the government agency or entity concerned, are closed to mining applications."

Reyes bewailed that instead of saving the forests and the environment, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is allegedly "bent on delivering protected areas to mining outfits."