A CITY official has urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the region to cancel all environmental compliance certificates issued to mining companies which are no longer operating in the upland villages in the city.
This after DENR Secretary Gina Lopez ordered the revocation of ECCs of four mining projects, one of them the Cekas Development Corp., which had an iron and copper project in Barangay Dansolihon.
Edwin Dael, chief of the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office, said Cekas has ceased its operations since 2012 and the cancellation of its ECC would mean it cannot continue its mining activities in the meantime.
“It’s a good thing that its ECC was cancelled so that it (Cekas) can no longer operate,” Dael said.
He said the DENR must also review the other mining companies with active ECCs but have ceased to operate.
When he first assumed office, Dael said the permits of many of the mining firms were not renewed by Mayor Oscar Moreno, who created the City Mining Regulatory Board.
During Moreno’s first term as mayor, the multi-sectoral environmental watchdog Task Force Kinaiyahan was also created with the DENR, Clenro, police and other law enforcement agencies, military, and citizens group as members.
Clenro and the Task Force conducted a series of operations that led to the arrest of persons involved in illegal mining and the confiscation of mining equipment in the city’s upland villages.
In a news article, Lopez was quoted as saying companies with voided ECCs “would have caused damage to the environment.”
In the same article, DENR acting undersecretary for legal services Mariz Paz Luna explained that most of the ECCs revoked were from companies that are not anymore operating and their projects had lapsed.
Luna said the ECCs that were cancelled were issued more than five years ago, and that if the companies want to continue their operations they have to apply for the ECC again.
But given the strict policy of the city government on mining, Dael said mining companies will find it hard to secure an ECC.
