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ORIENTAL Peninsula Resources Group announced on Thursday that it has
secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Court of
Appeals preventing the implementation of an earlier lower court
ruling that barred the listed mining firm from operating its mining
tenement in Palawan.
In a statement, Oriental Peninsula said the
appellate court issued a 60-day TRO on March 5 that effectively
prevents the Palawan regional trial court from implementing the
preliminary prohibitory injunction order against the mining company.
The TRO has allowed the firm to continue its roadwork and
construction of a pier in the area deemed crucial to its mining
operations.
On December 21 last year, the lower court
extended the three-day TRO it issued previously against Oriental
Peninsula to 20 days after the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB)
allegedly found employees of the company’s subsidiary Citinickel
Mines and Development Corp. illegally transporting quarried material
in Sofronio Española town.
The lower court said it moved to extend the TRO
to prevent “grave and irreparable damage” to public safety and
interest, but likewise ordered the PMRB, which initially filed the
complaint, to post a bond to cover Oriental Peninsula’s
operations.
However, the appellate court found that there is
a need to maintain the stats quo since, “the purpose of the TRO or
preliminary injunction, whether preventive or mandatory, is merely
to prevent a threatened wrong and to protect the properties or
rights involved from further injury, until the issues can be
determined after the hearing on its merits.”
Oriental Peninsula argued that the only activity
that Citinickel is engaged in at its site is the back-filling of
land to help the residents in the area whose residential land was
eroded due to the recent typhoon. “The back-filling activity was
taken up by Citinickel upon the request of the said barangay through
a resolution of the Sangguniang Barangay of Punang,” the firm
said.
Citinickel owns two nickel mining
projects—Toronto Mine and Pulot Mine—that are both covered by an
approved mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) with the
government. The accord gives Oriental Peninsula’s subsidiary the
exclusive right to conduct exploration activities within the
contract area for 25 years starting January 3, 2007.
Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) contested
Citinickel’s right to operate in a portion of Toronto mine,
claiming it has the exclusive right to operate the said mining
property based on the operating agreement it signed with Olympic
Mines and Development Corp., Citinickel’s predecessor, on July 18,
2003. However, Oriental Peninsula said PGMC and Olympic’s
agreement was canceled by the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources on October 30, 2006, due to “serious environmental
violations.”
-- Likha Cuevas-Miel
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