MALACAÑANG plans to issue an executive order (EO) aimed at regulating small-scale mining that will include authorizing local governments to issue permits for these operations, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a press conference on Tuesday.
“We are looking into crafting an EO or some law that will allow local government units to issue permits for small-scale miners to regulate them and make sure that they comply with environmental safeguards,” Mr. Lacierda said.
“The problem with small-scale miners [is that] they don’t observe proper environmental procedures. They throw the poison back to the river,” he said.
“There is no monitoring on the detrimental effects of small-scale mining despite documentation where we see a lot of small-scale miners throwing back the poison to rivers and it has caused considerable damage to the environment.”
==============================================================================
By: NRM
Source: Business World, Sept. 13, 2011
To view the original article, click here.
Comment here