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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Supreme Court (SC) has allowed the continued
operations of a Palawan-based mining firm after it issued a
temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Court of Appeals
(CA) and a lower court from enforcing their respective injunction
orders restricting the firm’s mining operations in the said
province.
In a three-page order, the SC’s Third Division
gave the go signal to Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. to
proceed with its operations pending review of claims that the
firm’s mining contract had already been cancelled due to serious
violations of environmental laws.
The High Court issued the TRO on January 16. It
also required Citinickel to post a cash bond or a surety bond in the
amount of P2 million within five days from notice, otherwise the TRO
shall automatically be lifted.
“Unless and until the Court directs otherwise,
the bond shall be effective from its approval by the Court until
this case is finally decided, resolved or terminated,” the order
said.
The CA’s 11th Division had previously upheld
the April 13, 2007 injunctive writ issued by Judge Bienvenido
Blancaflor of Branch 95 of the Puerto Princesa City RTC, enjoining
Citinickel from proceeding with its operation in the disputed mining
site in Palawan. Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) filed the
complaint against Citinickel.
Citinickel, in its petition, claimed that PGMC
has no operating agreement to speak of since a decision of the panel
of arbitrators of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau canceling the
same has become final and executory since January 2007.
The firm said that the panel of arbitrators,
which was vested by the 1995 Mining Code with original and exclusive
jurisdiction over mining disputes, cancelled PGMC’s operating
agreement due to alleged violations of its environmental compliance
certificates and small-scale mining permits for extracting nickel
ore way beyond the 50,000-MT annual limit.
Citinickel added that a separate CA division had
earlier sustained the cancellation of PGMC’s operating agreement,
which the said firm is seeking reconsideration.
Citinickel claimed that the CA’s 11th Division
and Blancaflor committed grave abuse of discretion when they
included Citinickel in the injunction orders barring former mine
concessionaire Olympic Mines and Development Corp. from canceling
its operating agreement with PGMC due to serious contract
violations.
Meanwhile, Boac Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista has
expressed apprehension over the reported influx of mining companies
in the country as he disputed government claims that the surge of
mining firms in the country will further strengthen the economy and
bring down unemployment.
Evangelista said he is “not confident these
companies will adhere to best practices in extracting our minerals
especially with the kind of monitoring that our government
provides.”
He reminded the government of what happened in
Marinduque in 1996 when a tailings pond operated by Marcopper Mining
Corp. collapsed burying riverbeds in about three million tons of
toxic mine waste that affected several farms and marine life.
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