MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has upheld its June 2006 decision allowing the national government to take over the so-called Diwalwal Gold Rush Area, otherwise known as the Agusan-Davao-Surigao Forest Reserve.

In a 46-page en banc decision penned by Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario, the high tribunal dismissed a motion for reconsideration that Southeast Mindanao Gold Mining Corp. (SEM) filed two years ago.

In its earlier decision, the high court nullified SEM’s exploration permit that it acquired from Marcopper Mining Corp. (MMC).

It found the transfer illegal since one of the conditions of the exploration permit issued by the government was that it was for the sole benefit of MMC.

Presidential Decree No. 463 also required that such transfers must have prior approval from the appropriate government authority.

“Simply told, SEM holds nothing for it to be entitled to conduct mining activities in the disputed mineral land,” the Supreme Court said.

Even if SEM’s exploration permit was valid, it said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Proclamation No. 297 effectively withdrew the permit. The proclamation declared 8,100 hectares of Monkayo, Compostela Valley, a mineral reservation and an environmentally critical area.

SEM questioned the constitutionality of the proclamation, arguing that the Charter prohibited the President from excluding forest reserves and proclaiming these as mineral reservations as that power belonged to Congress.

The Supreme Court, however, said the proclamation did not modify the boundaries of the Agusan-Davao-Surigao Forest Reserve since mineral reservations could exist within forest reserves because of the multiple land-use policy.