By Keith Anthony S. Fabro / Philippines News Agency
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—The Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. (RTNMC) managed to skip bars positioned by environmental groups years ago over its proposed nickel-mining expansion project in Bataraza, Palawan’s protected Mount Bulanjao Range, which is said to be “one of the best conserved biodiversity hot spots located in the southernmost portion of Palawan.”
But the resistance is far from over.
After learning in late June that the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) had already issued a strategic environmental plan (SEP) clearance on December 11, 2014, longtime oppositionist Palawan Nongovenment Organization Network Inc. (PNNI) lodged a complaint.
“How then can a resolution granting a SEP clearance be issued?” PNNI Executive Director lawyer Robert Chan wrote the PCSD on June 23, regarding the grant for “Renewal and Conversion of Mining Lease Contracts into Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) Denominated as AMA-IVB-144A.”
Chan argued that, from their records of the 215th and 216th minutes of PCSD meeting, “The issue of grant for RTN[MC] to expand its operation was not entertained primarily because the same cannot be allowed with the current Environmentally Critical Areas Network [ECAN] map of Bataraza classifying significant portions of Mount Bulanjao as restricted and core zones and, therefore, off limits to mining.”
“The past minutes of the meeting of the council is bereft of any motion to endorse much less approve the issuance of any SEP clearance to RTNMC, most especially to the expansion to Mount Bulanjao, which at the present ECAN map is not allowed. Neither was there any indication of public hearing, consensus or division of the house for voting, considering there is a pending opposition from the representative from civil society,” a dismayed Chan said.
1 comment
no to mining in Palawan….!!!!!