Monday, August 18, 2008 PB urged to decide on environment code 'squarely'
KORONADAL CITY -- A senior government executive in South Cotabato urged the Provincial Board members not to bow to pressure or to possible money offers in line with the crafting of the environment code that seeks to ban open pit mining in the area.
Vice Governor Eliordo U. Ogena, also the presiding officer of the provincial legislative body, appealed for understanding for the prolonged approval of the environment code.
"The people have the right to question why it is taking us too long to approve the code. We are individually studying it. [I believed] that all members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (PB) are matured enough to decide what's good for the province of South Cotabato," he said in a radio interview.
Recently, several board members embarked on study tours on open pit mining sites in Mindanao to help them arrive on a sound decision for the environment code that has been pending for years before the body.
The ban on open pit mining remained the only stumbling block for the passage of the environment code.
Ogena also discouraged the provincial board members not to be tempted by money should there be cash offers for their decision.
Earlier, Environment Secretary Jose L. Atienza Jr. sought the exclusion of the open-pit mining ban.
"Open pit mining is a legitimate mechanized mining method which is accepted worldwide and is considered the best mining technology in extracting large, low grade, near surface, flat-bedded or massive mineral deposits," said Atienza, also the chairperson of the Minerals Development Council, in a letter to the Provincial Government.
Atienza's letter was apparently in defense of Sagittarius Mines Inc., controlled by global mining player Xstrata Copper, which is eyeing huge copper and gold deposits in the town of Tampakan, South Cotabato.
The Tampakan project, which also straddles the towns of Columbio in Sultan Kudarat and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur, is one of the National Government's priority projects in a bid to revitalize the country's mining industry.
Initial company studies indicate that open pit mining will likely be employed for the Tampakan project. Sagittarius is expected to make a formal, definite announcement on the method that will be used for the project before the end of the year.
Atienza noted that the environmental impact of open pit mining could be managed or remedied with modern technologies, systems and practices.
He said that unlike most industries, the location of the mineral deposit that will be mined is not guided by free choice nor conditioned by proximity to markets but dictated by the imperatives of geology.
"Disallowing the use of open pit as a mining method, therefore, means leaving a number of potentially high-profit mineral deposits," the secretary said. (BSS)
