The Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geosciences Bureau has failed to collect P2.67 billion in royalty fees from five mine firms.
In an audit report, the Commission on Audit said the P2.67-billion fee representing the 5-percent royalty fees from 2012 to 2016 should have been collected from Philsaga Mining Corp. at P1 billion, SR Metal Inc. at P728 million, Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. at P475 million, JCG (Greenstone) Resources Corp. at P392 million and Agata Mining Ventures Inc. at P25 million from 2014 to 2016.
The mining companies were operating outside the mineral reservation areas in Region 13.
However, under the Mining Act, the State owns all mineral resources but allows the establishment of MRAs in case there is a need to preserve raw materials critical to national development.
According to CoA, the mining firms only paid for taxes based on existing mineral production sharing agreements.
“Royalty should have also been imposed against these mining companies as these companies also extract mineral resources owned by the State. It is worth mentioning that the aforesaid mining companies operating outside the MRAs were granted permit to operate by the secretary of the DENR without a specific requirement to pay royalty,” the audit report read.
CoA also called the attention of MGB for the absence of a database system on ore transport permits, mineral ores exportation permits, shipment records, and other pertinent documents.
It flagged the bureau’s mining management division for having no personnel to keep the shipment reports of the mining companies.
It told MGB to ask Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to urge President Rodrigo Duterte to declare the areas where these companies operate as MRAs or issue an authorization to impose royalty fees.