THE Mining Industry Coordinating Council will spend P50 million to conduct an objective, fact-finding, and science-based review of the performance of existing mine operations.
In a briefing after the second council meeting on Friday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who co-chairs the MICC, said the fund would come from the Budget department.
“An estimated budget of P50 million will be requested by the DoF from the DBM for the conduct of the review,” Dominguez said. He said according to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, the P50 million would come from the department’s contingency fund.
Dominguez said the review should be completed within three months and initially cover the 28 mines that were recommended for closure or suspension by Environment Secretary Regina Lopez.
He said the review would be in accordance with the existing guidelines and parameters set forth in the specific mining contracts and other pertinent laws, rules and regulations.
The review would be carried out by the technical review team and cover technical, legal, social, environmental, and economic aspects of mining operations.
“The review shall refer and take off from existing reports [audit report and checklists] prepared and developed by the DENR audit team and technical review committee, including multi-partite monitoring team reports, company quarterly reports submitted to the MGB, and minutes of the exit conference,” Dominguez said.
He said ocular inspections might also be conducted, if deemed necessary, by the technical review team and if funds permit.
“The council will then present or submit the findings of the review to the Office of the President, which shall render final decision on the orders issued by the DENR,” Dominguez said.
An adhoc review management unit and five technical review teams will be organized to manage and undertake the review. The RMU will manage the review through provision of office space, provide administrative and financial services, hire individual experts, and consolidate documents and reports for submission to the council.
The members of the technical review teams will be composed of qualified, certified or licensed persons in their field of expertise and experienced in mining operations. They must be independent and have no known conflicts of interest.
Dominguez said each technical review team might conduct the review individually and they would be compensated based on the number of reports reviewed [per mine], that should be completed in seven calendar days. The compensation will be subject to the regular government accounting and auditing procedures.
Dominguez added that the review of mining firms would push through whether or not the appointment of Lopez is confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.
Earlier, Dominguez said “the position I support is the position of President [Rodrigo] Duterte, which is we must follow due process when we are dealing with all kinds of activities.”
“We must honor our contracts and we must behave as a government that is responsible. That is the only position I support,” Dominguez said.
The Finance chief said many of the municipalities hosting the mine sites ordered shut down or suspended by the DENR relied heavily on the taxes and other fees paid by mining firms.
The DENR ordered last Feb. 2 the closure of 23 mine sites and the suspension of operations of five others across the country. A week later, it ordered the cancellation of 75 mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs) still in the pre-operation stage that the government had forged with mining companies.