You are right, almost expectedly, Gina Lopez was again reappointed by PRRD. And so the unpleasant saga on mining continues. Not long thereafter, she immediately hugged the limelight getting so much bragging media mileage which she likes a lot. She is annoyingly keeping the miners at bay. But given credibility issues, this woman will not last. That is my forecast, however, with no scientific explanation. Well, I am no scientist. But you see, my assumption would probably find a fair probability to happen. Look at this crunchy and very interesting development – a press release dated 19 April 2017 by one Paola Alvarez, contact nos. 09198911004 entitled ‘DOF: PRRD has ordered MICC review of mining–related issuances’, of one of the most powerful departments in government, the Department of Finance. Let me reproduce this PR for the consumption of all the readers of M.O.M. This is a very good topic over a cup of brewed coffee with side dish of grilled camote lanot.
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“The interagency MICC is mandated under the law to review all mining-related rules and regulations, issuances and agreements, and was ordered convened by President Duterte himself to discuss and reassess the audit done by the DENR that led to either the closure or suspension of operations of 28 mining sites across the country, according to a DOF official. The MICC is not a creation of any Department. It is mandated under Sec. 10 of E.O. 79, issued by the previous administration, to conduct an assessment and review of all mining-related laws, rules and regulations, issuances and agreements,” Finance Usec Bayani Agabin said. EO 79 was issued by then-President Aquino in 2012 to institutionalize and implement reforms in the Philippine mining sector and to provide policies and guidelines to ensure environmental protection and responsible mining in the country.
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“Agabin recalled that during the Feb. 7 Cabinet meeting, PRRD directed the DOF and DENR to convene the MICC on Feb. 9 and to invite the SolGen, the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and the DOJ Secretary to the meeting, so that they could comprehensively discuss the results of the DENR audit and DENR Secretary Lopez’s recommendation to shutter 23 mines and suspend the operations of five others. Hence, there was no usurpation of the DENR’s functions by the MICC because the President himself has ordered that the results of the DENR audit be discussed and reviewed, which is within the powers of the MICC, Agabin said.
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“When the MICC convened its first meeting on Feb. 9, Agabin said its members reached a unanimous decision to conduct a multistakeholder review of the country’s mining operations, with the personal lawyer of Sec. Lopez – Christian Monsod – even actively participating in the drafting of a resolution for this purpose. Sec. Lopez herself was present at the Feb. 9 meeting of this interagency council in which an agreement was reached on a MICC review of the said audit conducted by the DENR last year that led to Lope’s closure and suspension orders, said Agabin. Agabin noted that Sec. Lopez, along with DOF Sec. Dominguez had even signed MICC Resolution No. 6 calling for such a multistakeholder review. The secretaries of the DENR and DOF co-chair the MICC.
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“Moreover, Agabin said, Lopez’s deputy, DENR Usec Maria Paz Luna, who had attended the subsequent MICC and its TWG meetings on the secretary’s behalf, had even volunteered to make available for MICC review the DENR audit report last year that served as basis for Lopez’s closure and suspension orders. Luna is the DENR OIC Usec for Legal Affairs. As for the 50-million budget requested by the MICC from the Dept. of Budget and Management for the multistakeholder review, Agabin said “this amount is reasonable and justified, given that the task involves not only the 28 affected mines ordered either closed or suspended by Lopez, but all the 311 mining contracts across the country.” Agabin said “that among the powers and functions of the MICC is to submit a work plan for the implementation of EO 79, thus, creating the multistakeholder teams to conduct the review within the authority of the MICC to implement this executive order.
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“While Sec. 3 of EO 79 provides that a “multistakeholder team led by the DENR shall conduct a review of the performance of mining operations,” in the country every two years, no such review has been done since EO 79 took effect in 2012, Agabin said. He said that it was puzzling why Lopez is claiming that the MICC had no legal basis to undertake a review of mining operations – even though she herself had agreed to the multistakeholder review ad signed the MICC resolution to that effect. Agabin said that in response to PRRD’s directive during the Feb. 7 Cabinet meeting, “the MICC determined that there was a need to conduct a comprehensive review of the mining operations given the technical nature of the DENR audit and the number of mines involved in the closure and suspension orders.” He said the framework, process and methodology of undertaking the review was approved by the MICC’s TWG in a Feb. 20 meeting, in which Sec. Lopez’s representative, Usec Luna, provided several inputs and agreed to the conduct of the review and its framework.
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“In fact, it was Usec Luna who volunteered to make the audit report done by the DENR on the 28 mining operations available to the multistakeholder technical review teams, and joined the other members of the TWG in adopting the framework for the review,” Agabin said. In the March 3 meeting of the MICC, Agabin said the framework was unanimously agreed upon and adopted by the MICC.” Agabin noted that during the MICC and TWG meetings, it was learned that the DENR audit was not a multistakeholder review as required under EO 79 as it was done by only four personnel from the DENR and a third party expert. Also, none of the 20 departments and agencies represented in the MICC was consulted by the DENR.
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“In fact, even Isabela Vice Gov. Antonio Albano, representing the Union of Local Authorities of the Phil. (ULAP), disclosed during the last MICC meeting on March 3 that the LGUs of the areas hosting the affected mines were never consulted by the DENR,” said Agabin. He said that the audit team created under DENR Memo Order No. 2016-01 is not a multistakeholder team as required by EO 79. “Sec. 3 of that DENR memo states that its audit team was composed only of a third party expert and one officer each from the DENR Central Office, its regional Office, MGB, and EMB,” Agabin said.”
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There you go. I am sure that you enjoyed reading this press release. But wait! There is this another crazy news from Sec. Lopez, “that she wants to work with the New Peoples’ Army (NPA). Hello! Enya ngata ti nakan ni Madam? Agka__k sametten?