Zambales gov faces graft raps over small-scale mine permits

Manila, Philippines -  Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. is now facing graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly issuing illegal small-scale mining permits in the province in the past eight months.

Also named respondents in the case filed last Monday were government employees Benjamin Manabat and Romeo Gojo, 17 police officers and personnel led by Zambales police director Francisco Santiago, and nine private individuals.

Consolidated Mines Inc. (CMI), in a 25-page charge sheet, said the estimated value of illegally hauled and transported minerals had reached at least P211 million as of May this year.

Because of the permits granted by the provincial government, CMI said the national government actually lost around P14 million in excise taxes, including royalties.

The CMI, represented by its president Benicio Eusebio, said Ebdane’s acts created a negative impact among local and foreign mining investors. 

CMI specifically took the respondents to task for granting supposedly illegal small-scale mining permits, ore transport permits and mineral ore export permits “to conspiring permittee holders for the purpose of forcibly taking, hauling, transporting, and shipping the stockpiles of chromite fines” located at Towers 8 and Tower 9 of the Coto Mines complex in Masinloc, Zambales within the Zambales Mineral Chromite Reservation.

CMI alleged that Ebdane conspired with some local officials, including the police, in carrying out the illegal activities from October 2011 to the present, saying only the director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is authorized to issue small-scale mining permits.

CMI said small-scale miners did not secure environmental clearance certificates from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), as required by law.

To date, CMI said a total of 100,000 metric tons of the private company’s chromite sand was allegedly forcibly hauled out of its mining site using heavy equipment and stockpiled at a private port in Palauig, Zambales. 

Some 75,000 metric tons of chromite fines, according to CMI, has been shipped out to China aboard nine cargo vessels, a number of which were allegedly found to have left Philippine territory without appropriate permits and clearances from the Philippine Ports Authority, MGB, EMB, and the Bureau of Customs.

The mineral ore export permits covering the shipments allegedly did not undergo the required verification by the MGB, and certification by its regional director.

CMI, a firm incorporated in 1933, said it has 13,000 stockholders with two major projects – the Coto Refractory Chromite Mines in Masinloc, Zambales, and the disseminated porphyry copper mine in Marinduque.