Solons ask board to reject mining tragedy deal

Two legislators from the province of Marinduque are asking the provincial board to reject a $20-million offer to settle a case involving the country’s worst mining disaster.

In a letter to Vice Gov. Romulo Bacorro  Jr. and members of the provincial board, Representatives Lord Allan Jay Velasco and Lorna Velasco asked the board to reject the offer made by Placerdome Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. to pay the province $20 million for the damage caused by the discharge of at least 1.5 million cubic meters of tailings from the operations of the now defunct Marcopper mining firm into Boac River in March 1996.

The two legislators said in their letter that the amount was simply too low.

In a statement, they added that a close look at the fine print in a May 1, 2005, agreement on the settlement offer would show that not all of the $20 million would go to the province.

The Marinduque legislators said expenses incurred by the lawyer handling the settlement package, which could reach $7 million, would be deducted from the $20 million.

“It is now 2014, or around 18 years from the date of the mining disaster, and the damaged areas have not yet been fully restored to their condition in 1996,” said the two legislators’ statement.

They said the proposed settlement was “unconscionable and should be voided and canceled.”

Should the settlement be approved, they said, the province cannot expect areas in Boac, Mogpog and other towns in the province to be restored to their former conditions prior to the 1996 disaster. The proposal, they added, “is highly prejudicial to the interests of the people of Marinduque.”

Reports earlier said $12 million had been held in escrow for the rehabilitation of Boac River.

But the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said last year that it was unaware of such funds.

“There is no such fund,” MGB Director Leo Jasareno said in reaction to reports in September last year that resurfaced on the fund purportedly set up in 2001 by Marcopper.

“Insofar as the DENR is concerned, no such fund was ever made available. We have no information on it and the DENR was never a party to it,” he told the Inquirer on the phone in an interview in September last year.

The MGB has formed Task Force Marcopper to devise plans to claim compensation for the damage and rehabilitate Boac River. With a report from DJ Yap