SAN JOSE CITY—Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez has dispatched a six-man team to Nueva Vizcaya to audit the Australian mining company operating in Kasibu town amid reports its operations have endangered some 300,000 hectares of agricultural lands in northern and central Luzon.
Nueva Vizcaya Gov. Carlos Padilla said the team has arrived in Barangay Dipidio, Kasibu to look into the operations of Oceana Gold Philippines Inc.
DENR Memo Order 1 issued by Lopez last July 8 calls for the auditing of all mining companies.
The Oceana Gold audit team is headed by forester Nemesio Beronilla of DENR Region 1. The members of the team were DENR Region 2 assistant regional director Wilfredo Malvar, Christian Oropesa and Astor Rejuso of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and Jasmin Rieza and Goldwin Cesario de Leon of the Environmental Management Bureau.
Padilla, who earlier urged the DENR to withdraw OGPI’s exploration permit, suspend its operations and terminate the financial and technical assistance agreement (FTAA) for being destructive to the environment, said the audit team would be able to validate their reports firsthand.
“With this audit team, we may avert an environmental holocaust in its impact zone and save our people from further miseries associated with open pit mining,” he said.
Padilla, his wife former governor Ruth Padilla and leaders of indigenous peoples, earlier said they oppose OGPI’s operations because Nueva Vizcaya is a critical watershed of major dams namely Ambuklao, Binga, Casecnan, Magat, Pantabangan and San Roque, which irrigate at least 286,920 hectares of agricultural lands in Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon.
The $1.19-billion, 200-meter tall and 1.2-kilometer long San Roque Dam is considered the country’s largest dam and the 16th largest in the world. It is an enbankment dam on the Agno River, considered the third largest in the country.
The World Bank-funded Pantabangan Dam is the largest in terms of irrigation coverage as irrigates 120,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Central Luzon while the $600-million Casecnan Dam, which diverts water from the Casecnan and Taang Rivers to the Pantabangan Dam through a 25-kilometer underground tunnel, irrigates 81,920 hectares of lands in Nueva Ecija and Pampanga.
The Magat Dam irrigates 85,000 hectares of agricultural lands in the Cagayan Valley region while the Ambuklao and Binga Dams, which were both damaged by the 1990 killer earthquake that rocked North Luzon, provide hydropower-generating capacities.
Padilla said that aside from these dams, the operations of the OGPI affects the province’s vision to become a watershed haven and its promotion as an agro-forestry area and eco-tourism site with its fertile soil, semi-temperate climate and natural wonders as the firm’s FTAA area is the site of the Capisaan Cave, the country’s fourth-longest cave system as well as the citrus and high-value crops plantations of local farmers.