A MULTI-stakeholder team of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) is set to hold its first meeting on Monday to review existing mining operations, which were ordered shut down or suspended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who co-chairs the MICC, said the team is essentially a “technical working group” that will review the operations of the mine sites affected by the DENR order.
"The technical working group, (that is) the one going to do the reviews. That was part of the board resolution, so they’re going to implement it on Monday. They will decide what to do, the technical working group," Dominguez said.
This organizational meeting is a result of MICC Resolution No. 6, which had resolved to create “a multi-stakeholder team” to “review existing mining operations in consultation with local government units (LGUs), which review shall be based on the guidelines and parameters set forth in the specific mining contract and in other pertinent laws, taking into account the valid exercise of the State’s police power to serve the common good of the poor.”
Resolution No. 6 was approved by the MICC in its February 9 meeting.
The multi-stakeholder review team shall also include representatives from relevant government agencies and institutions.
The Department of Finance said invitations were sent to the co-chairpersons of the MICC--Dominguez and Regina Lopez of the DENR, along with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Director General Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), among other Cabinet officials.
Earlier, the MICC affirmed the primacy of both “procedural and substantive” due process in the final resolution of DENR’s series of actions on existing mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs). (SDR/SunStar Philippines)