MANILA, Philippines –  The review of the existing 28 mines ordered closed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to kick off today.

In a briefing, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the three-month review will start with the signing of the guidelines for the conduct of an objective, fact-finding, and science-based review of the performance of the 28 mining companies.

The agreement was signed during the 25th meeting of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC).

“The review shall initially cover the 28 mines that were recommended for closure and suspension. The review will be carried out by the technical review team and will cover technical, legal, social, environmental, and economic aspects of mining operations with respect to the DENR orders,” he said.

The head of the Department of Finance (DOF) said they would request for a P50 million budget to complete the review.

Dominguez said the review would take off from existing reports such as audit report or checklists prepared and developed by the DENR audit team and technical review committee.

These would include multi-partite monitoring team reports, company quarterly reports submitted to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, and minutes of the exit conference, he said.

The DENR will also provide and make available copies of the documents in its data room for easy access during the conduct of the review.

Ocular inspections would be conducted if deemed necessary and if funds permit, Dominguez said.

The finance chief said the multi-stakeholder Technical Working Group of the MICC will form an adhoc review management unit (RMU) and five technical review teams (TRTs) to manage and undertake the review.

The TRTs consist of technical review experts who, for the sake of objectivity, will be independent and have no known conflict of interest with the mining sector or any anti-mining non-government organization.

Last Feb. 2, Environment Secretary Gina Lopez ordered the closure of 23 of the country’s 41 operational mines and suspended five others for alleged violations including being located in watersheds and polluting bodies of waters.

This was followed by the cancellation of 75 mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs) that were in the pre-operation stage.

The DENR’s closure and suspension orders is seen costing 17 affected cities and municipalities in 10 provinces over P821 million in foregone revenues annually.

Dominguez said the MICC would submit the findings of the review to Malacanang, which shall render the decision on the suspension and closure orders issued by the DENR.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/03/06/1678291/govt-starts-review-mines-closure