PMA asks firm to cut off electricity to illegal miners in campus

BAGUIO CITY—Officials of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) have urged the city’s power utility to cut electric supply to illegal mining operations at the academy’s Fort del Pilar reservation to discourage them from exploiting its no-mining zone.

But an official of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco), which supplies power to the city and Benguet province, said it is constrained by law to supply power to anyone who has been provided clearance by a local government.

At a recent press conference, lawyer Delmar Cariño, Beneco general counsel and human resources manager, said the utility is compelled to provide power to households or business establishments that were issued certificates of final electric inspection, which is part of the prerequisite documents processed by a building permit applicant.

Cariño said the PMA concern was attached to a formal request from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to disconnect or to stop services to unlicensed pocket miners.

However, the agency and PMA did not supply Beneco with a list of suspected illegal miners, said Gerardo Verzosa, Beneco general manager.

Cariño said Beneco intends to discuss alternative plans with the academy, the Baguio government and MGB, to regulate mining at the PMA reservation.

MGB banned all forms of mining at PMA’s forested reservation last year, one of the first reservations to be classified as no-mining zones since President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 79, his administration’s policy on mining. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon