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Difference between revisions of "South Cotabato News"
→LGUs implement improved permits, licensing system
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==LGUs implement improved permits, licensing system== | ==South Cotabato shuts down 300 mine tunnels in T’boli town== | ||
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=381328 | |||
*October 24, 2011, 2:47 pm | |||
:by (PNA) | |||
LAP/AVE/RSS | |||
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Oct. 24 (PNA) - The provincial government of South Cotabato has ordered the closure of some 300 mine tunnels at a gold rush village in T’boli town as it intensified its crackdown against illegal small-scale mining operations in the province. | |||
Engr. Siegfred Flaviano, acting chief of the Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO), said Monday the mine tunnels in Barangay Kematu in T’boli would be padlocked on Wednesday based on the stoppage and closure order issued by the local government. | |||
“We have given the operators five days to bring out all their ore stocks from the tunnels,” he said. | |||
Flaviano said the closure notice was sent last Friday to the T’boli Minahang Bayan Multi-Purpose Cooperative (TMBMPC), whose members have been mining a 21-hectare gold rich area in Barangay Kematu since the early 1980s. | |||
The padlocking of the hundreds of tunnels in the village has already been coordinated with the police and the military for the security of the implementing team, he added. | |||
He did not say how many operators owned the gold tunnels as well as the number of affected workers. | |||
Flaviano earlier said South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. issued an order stopping the small-scale gold mining operations in Barangay Kematu due to the resurgence of land-related dispute between the Maguan clan and the Minahang Bayan cooperative members involving the 21 hectares. | |||
The Maguan clan insisted that the Minahang Bayan members should get their approval or the Free Prior and Informed Consent because the area is under their ancestral land, he added. | |||
During the previous administration of then governor and now Second District Rep. Daisy Avance-Fuentes, the provincial government also closed the small-scale mining in Barangay Kematu because of the land dispute. | |||
Flaviano said the cooperative members have been given an 18-month extension to operate, after they appealed for consideration, prior to the serving of the closure order last Friday. | |||
Pingoy also issued the stoppage order after the PEMO informed him that most of the small-scale miners have allegedly failed to comply with the regulatory guidelines on tunnel mining. | |||
During a recent meeting with the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board, the governor learned that 70 percent of the small-scale operations were illegal, the provincial information office reported earlier. | |||
The 21 hectares are within the tenement of Tribal Mining Corp’s 85-hectare under Mineral Production Sharing Agreement 090-97-XI granted in 1997. The agreement has a lifespan of 25 years. | |||
Tribal Mining has partnered with Canadian firm Cadan Resources Corp. for the commercial development of it’s T’boli gold-silver project. | |||
The Court of Appeals earlier ruled that the conflict over rights between the mining firm and the small-scale miners involving the disputed area shall be resolved by a Regional Panel of Arbitrators, which is a quasi-judicial body annexed to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. | |||
\==LGUs implement improved permits, licensing system== | |||
*Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=7&r=r12&id=60491 | *Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=7&r=r12&id=60491 | ||
*Saturday, October 22, 2011 | *Saturday, October 22, 2011 | ||
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"We hope to dry-run the system in January, Leysa said. | "We hope to dry-run the system in January, Leysa said. | ||
DILG is working with the Department of Trade and Industry for this project. (PIA 12) | DILG is working with the Department of Trade and Industry for this project. (PIA 12) | ||
==Conflicting tenurial documents hamper implementation of environmental projects== | ==Conflicting tenurial documents hamper implementation of environmental projects== | ||