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Two top officials of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) are under fire for allegedly implementing a
midnight order of then DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes to favor DMCI
Holdings Inc. (DMCI) over A3 UNA Mining Corp. (A3 UNA) on their
overlapping claims to a 3.5-hectare concession in Sta. Cruz,
Zambales.
Informed sources said that DENR Undersecretary
Eleazar Quinto and DENR-Region III executive director Regidor de
Leon “hastily and arbitrarily implemented” the July 30, 2007
memorandum of Reyes, the current energy secretary, despite
knowledge of two pending court cases, which A3 UNA has filed against
DMCI.
A day before he was transferred to the
Department of Energy, Reyes issued a memorandum directing DENR to
issue a provisional permit in favor of DMCI, but this permit was
being contested by A3 UNA, which filed an injunction suit against
DMCI and secured a temporary restraining order from the court.
In January last year, A3 UNA filed with the DENR
a foreshore lease application covering a two-hectare mining
concession in Barangay Politoc, Sta. Cruz, Zambales. After a month,
A3 UNA filed an amended application to include the 3.5-hectare area,
which is covered by the expired foreshore lease agreement of Acoje
Mining Corp.
DMCI opposed A3 UNA’s amended application
and subsequently it filed for a foreshore lease, which covers part
of the area applied for by A3 UNA. DMCI’s application was in turn
opposed by A3 UNA.
Sources said the conflicting claims of the two
firms have escalated to an armed provocation when a group
introducing themselves as members of the 70th Infantry Battalion
of the Philippine Army, allegedly barged into A3 UNA property and
harassed barangay residents, who were working on A3 UNA’s ongoing
loading port construction.
This prompted A3 UNA to file a criminal
complaint against SMCI.
Despite the two court cases against DMCI, de
Leon issued the January 8, 2008 order that awarded the mining
concession to DMCI. Quinto was said to have known of de Leon’s
move, but the former did not lift a finger to do it despite calls to
let the court decide the overlapping claims.
On January 12, Quinto displayed “partiality”
to DMCI and verbally advised A3 UNA officials led by Adrian Yu to
yield to DMCI’s position and that Yu would be “duly
compensated.”
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