Undersecretary for Mining Mario Luis J. Jacinto, the concurrent director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), on Tuesday said he is optimistic on working with retired Gen. Roy Cimatu following his appointment as Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary.
“We will continue the things we need to do here [at MGB],” Jacinto told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview, adding he believes in the wisdom of President Duterte’s appointment of Cimatu, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces, and vowed to work with the new DENR chief.
“I’ve known General Cimatu when he was the AFP chief of staff [when] I was in Mindanao. But I am not sure if he’ll remember me,” Jacinto said.
An appointee of the current administration, Jacinto was reportedly “sidelined” by former Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez, whose hands-on policy led to the closure or suspension of 28 large-scale mines and the cancellation of 75 Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) plus the Financial and/or Technical Assistance Agreement of the multi-billion-dollar Tampakan-Copper Gold Project.
Days before Lopez’s appointment was rejected by the bicameral Commission on Appointments, the feisty former DENR chief declared a policy to ban prospective open-pit mines.
But even as Lopez has been taken out of the picture, Jacinto said erring mining companies that fail environmental standards are not yet off the hook.
He said the DENR-MGB will be strict in enforcing the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 to ensure that only responsible miners will be allowed to operate.
Irresponsible mining, he said, will not be tolerated and erring companies still face possible closure.
“Once we close the mine, we will close it for good,” Jacinto vowed.
The review of the controversial Executive Order (EO) 79, which allowed several mining companies to expand their mining-tenements review is ongoing, will push through, he added.
“It will be part of the review process. What we are going to do is review EO 79 and will make the recommendation for policy change, if necessary,” Jacinto said.
Section 7 of the implementing rules and regulation of EO 79 allowed mining companies to expand their areas outside the regular process of expanding MPSA acquisition.
Recent findings showed 16 mining companies were able to expand their mining tenements through an amendment of their MPSAs.
The amended MPSA annexed certain areas covered by another MPSA application or exploration permit.
The mechanism allowed the MPSA areas to expand by as much as 35,000 hectares, despite the moratorium on new mining projects and processing of mining permits following the signing in July 2012 of EO 79 by former President Benigno S. Aquino III. Ironically, records show that most of the expansion took place at the homestretch of Aquino’s term in the late-2015 and early 2016.