Inquirer Southern Luzon
Mining law or protected area law?
By Marlon Alexander Luistro
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:50:00 03/26/2008
BATANGAS CITY – When two trucks loaded with 16 tons of stones illegally extracted from the Taal Volcano were released by mining officials last month after being fined a total of P8,140, environment officials said the offenders got away with a light punishment.
“This is a bad precedent because people will now think it is OK to extract (minerals) in a protected area,” Maximo Soriano, chief of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, told the Inquirer.
“While they might have addressed the violations of the mining law, they haven’t dealt with the infringements in a protected area (law).”
Soriano was referring to the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Law of 1992, or Republic Act No. 7586, which puts on its list of protected areas national parks, wildlife sanctuary, virgin forests and “outstanding remarkable areas and biologically important public lands that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, biogeographic zones and related ecosystems.”
The law prohibits “hunting, destroying, disturbing or mere possession of any plants or animals” derived from a protected area without a permit from the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) and mutilating, defacing or destroying objects of natural beauty or objects of interest to cultural communities of scenic value. Violators may be fined P5,000 to P500,000, excluding the value of the damaged items, and imprisoned for one to six years.
Taal Volcano, known as the world’s smallest active volcano, was declared a protected area in 1996 by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 906. It has erupted 34 times since 1572.
Soriano questioned the move of the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) to release the two impounded trucks after the fines were paid, since this could imply that the matter of taking minerals from Taal was a “closed issue.”
On Feb. 22, the PMRB imposed fines of P5,126 and P3,014, respectively, on Eagle Express Group and Ideal World Corp., which were identified as the owners of the trucks. The transport firms failed to present an ore transport permit issued by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau regional director, as required under the Philippine Mining Act or RA 7942, which specifies the origin and quantity of minerals to be conveyed.
Luis Awitan, PMRB head, classified the volcanic stones as black cinder, a lava rock used for landscaping, porcelain making and soap. “As far as we know, those stones are not found in Agoncillo and most likely, they came from the Taal Volcano Island,” he said in an interview.
Police officials of Agoncillo say such stones are usually extracted from the villages of Alas-as and Pulang-Bato in San Nicolas town and sold at P3 per kilo.
Awitan said the fines were imposed after police submitted the seizure receipt of the trucks and sworn statements of witnesses. He also confirmed that the trucks, along with the volcanic stones, were released upon payment of the fines.
However, no charges were filed against the truck owners for violation of the Nipas Law.
Since Taal is a protected area, Soriano questioned the jurisdiction of the PMRB over the case. The PMRB, he said, should have referred the case to the PAMB for administrative hearings.
The Inquirer learned that it was acting MGB regional director Miguel Fernandez Jr. who referred the case to the PMRB on Feb. 21, requesting for “prompt action.”
Soriano also asked the PAMB to clarify its position on the jurisdiction of the mining law and determine how this could be “reconciled” with the Nipas Law.
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