The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines on Thursday questioned the way the Environment Department conducted its audit of operational mines.
“The mines audit conducted were not totally impartial,” CoMP vice president for legal and policy Ronald Recidoro said.
“Known anti-mining civil society organizations such as the Alyansa Tigil Mina and their allied grassroots organizations were included in the audit teams. DENR Secretary Gina Lopez ordered the inclusion of third party experts in the audit teams. However, none of the CSO representatives included in the audit teams were expert in any field that may be relevant to the audit process,” Recidoro said.
CoMP said reports from mining firms stated that the CSO representatives did nothing but aired their opposition to the mining projects.
“The anti-mining CSOs who were disproportionately represented in the audit teams were allegedly harassing the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Environmental Management Bureau representatives when they have favorable findings on the mining project,” Recidoro said.
Recidoro also scored the lack of an expert to assess the social acceptability of the mine operations.
“We are deeply concerned that the presence of the CSO representatives opposed to large-scale mining in the audit team will unduly influence results of the audit, specifically community satisfaction and social acceptability,” Recidoro said.
He said regular mine audit protocols were not observed.
“Several mining projects were even suspended prior to the start of the actual audit. Several of our members have complained that procedures to ensure fairness and transparency in the audit were absent, including the conduct of an exit audit conference where the DENR would have informed the company about initial findings,” Recidoro said.
The government has so far suspended the operations of 10 mining companies. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered the DENR to assess the mining operations in the country.
he government is set to shut down 12 more mines, after an audit allegedly discovered inadequate mining practices in these sites, an Environment official said Wednesday.
Environment undersecretary and head of mining audit team Leo Jasareno said twelve mining companies were recommended for suspension after the audit. He said Environment Secretary Regina Lopez would identify the companies Monday.
“Based on the initial review, 12 are recommended for suspension but we are still reviewing that. Remember that the process is [that] the audit team will report and then we will review,” he said.
CoMP earlier welcomed the audit, saying an impartial audit would weed out the irresponsible miners and highlight the significant contributions of responsible miners to their communities.
“But in moving forward we ask for future mine audits conducted by the DENR to be kept impartial, free from any bias, and involving only DENR personnel and acknowledged experts in the fields relevant in the review,” Recidoro said.
“We iterate our support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s drive for inclusive growth and advocacy for good governance. We will work with government on the shared vision of a prosperous and industrialized Philippines, anchored on equitable and sustainable development,” he said.
Environment Secretary Regina Lopez earlier said they will announce the results of the mining audit on Monday.