THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has affirmed the authority of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to supervise the operations and limit the volume of minerals to be extracted by small-scale mining firms.

In a letter dated July 30, 2007 and addressed to the then DENR and now Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the DENR under Republic Act 7076, or People’s Small Scale Mining Act of 1991, has direct supervision and control over the program and activities of small-scale miners.

Reyes earlier sought clarification of DOJ Opinion No. 74, series of 2006, which was allegedly erroneously applied by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita in February this year to reverse DENR findings of alleged nickel ore overextraction and other environmental violations against Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC), a small-scale mining company in southern Palawan.

Citing as basis the questioned DOJ opinion, Ermita said R.A. 7076 has lifted the limits imposed on the extraction of minerals by small-scale miners across the country.

As such, he reinstated PGMC’s environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) and operating permits and even barred DENR agents from enforcing Reyes’s orders to shut down PGMC’s operations.

Ermita, however, abandoned his decision following protests by environmental groups and big mining firms. Instead, Ermita referred PGMC’s case back to the DENR to determine whether it should be permanently stripped of its ECC for nickel ore overextraction.

In his letter to the DOJ, the former Environment secretary sought clarification of the proper interpretation of the DOJ opinion earlier issued by Gonzalez upon the request of Agusan del Norte Gov. Eripe John Amante seeking guidance over small-scale mining activities in his province.

Reyes specifically asked Gonzalez on whether or not RA 7076  impliedly repealed Section 1 of Presidential Decree 1899 pertaining to the annual production quota limitation of the small-scale mining permits (SSMP).

Reyes also sought for the proper interpretation of the word “nickel-cobalt ore” as indicated in the SSMP and environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

While Gonzalez did not categorically state whether RA 7076 has repealed P.D. 1899 as the law governing small-scale mining activities, he said various sections of RA 7076 vests upon DENR the power to regulate the small-scale mining industry.

Among such powers, the DOJ chief said, include the authority to set the size and shape of the contract area which in no case should exceed 20 hectares; assess and regulate environmental impact and other considerations; rescission of contracts and imposition of fines; award of contracts; and formulation and implementation of rules and regulations pertaining to small-scale mining.

“It is worthy to emphasize that although RA 7076 is silent with regard to the 50,000-metric-ton limit, however, said law gave DENR secretary the authority to set the proper annual production limit of a small-scale miner.

This can be derived through the powers given to him under RA 7076,” Gonzalez said in his letter.

Gonzalez noted that under Section 26 of RA 7076, the secretary through his representative “shall exercise direct supervision and control over the program and activities of the small-scale miners within the people’s small-scale mining area.”

“It is clear that the DENR secretary should issue the necessary implementing rules and regulation in order to address the gray areas in the implementation of the small-scale mining law,” the letter added.

In the same letter, Gonzalez clarified that the word “ore” pertains to the mined ore in its raw, unprocessed form.

The proper definition was also one of the clarifications sought by Reyes following PGMC’s defense that Condition No. 8 of its ECC contains a provision limiting to 50,000 metric tons the extraction of the metal nickel and not nickel ore.

“We agree with your [Reyes’s] view that the word ‘ore’ refers to the raw material that can be mined or extracted from the earth without undergoing any process or intervention other than the physical act of removing the mineral ore from the earth,” the Justice secretary said.

TARGETING to lower power rates through competition and at the same time rake in much-needed revenues, President Arroyo, in a briefing with economic managers Monday, directed the Department of Energy (DOE) and its attached agencies to implement open access in private and publicly owned ecozones and speed up the privatization of the generation and transmission assets of the government.

THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has affirmed the authority of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to supervise the operations and limit the volume of minerals to be extracted by small-scale mining firms.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is now pinpointing up to 80,000 hectares of farmland in Visayas and Mindanao where palay could be planted up to mid-September to offset the projected losses in palay production in Luzon due to the dry spell.

SORSOGON CITY—Every year, the red-tide phenomenon infecting Sorsogon Bay since late last year,  feared to stay on for the next 25 years, would be costing this city P100 million in lost income and other economic benefits.

THE country’s real-estate tycoons stand to benefit from the decision of China to open up to the region its property management and development sector as part of its offer under the trade in services chapter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-China free-trade agreement (FTA).

THE United States government has given the Philippines a sugar quota allocation of 142,160 metric tons (MT) of raw cane sugar for fiscal year (FY) 2008 which starts from October 1 this year up to September 30 next year.