ITOGON, Benguet – The management of the Benguet Corporation (BC) called on officials of the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) to go slow in making public pronouncements relative to the fines that the company will pay to the government relative to the intermittent tailings leak in Antamok that might have contaminated three river systems in the municipality.
Lawyer Froilan Roger C. Lawilao, BC administration department manager, said the issue is now under the jurisdiction of the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) which will evaluate and assess the EMB-CAR findings and recommendations and the company’s position, thus, unsolicited public pronouncements relative to the fines that will be imposed to the mine firm is rather premature.
“Let us leave the matter to the adjudication body to make a final ruling so that we will not create confusion among the involved stakeholders in this sensitive issue we are currently encountering. We have our own position on the matter but we do not want to make an issue about it,” Lawilao stressed.
Earlier, EMB-CAR regional director Reynaldo S. Digamo said BC stands to face fines amounting to P200,000 per day for river pollution of the Liang, Ambalanga and Agno rivers that will be considered three counts and another three counts for river impendence with a fine of P200,000 per day for each count dating back to October 27, 2016 when the accidental tailing leak happened.
However, Lawilao claimed there are various issues that the company intends to contest relative to the EMB-CAR findings and recommendations considering that the reported tailings leak was a result of force majeure.
According to him, the fines proposed by the EMB-CAR against the company is excessive, confiscatory and unreasonable since including already contaminated river systems such as the Ambalanga and Agno rivers as part of the bodies of water affected by the tailing spill is doubtful based on their own findings.
He asserted the Ambalanga and Agno rivers are already contaminated primarily because of the numerous small-scale mining activities upstream of the said bodies of water, thus, it could not be concluded that it was the tailing leak that contaminated the two major river systems in the locality. He added that no violation of river impendence was committed considering the leak was minimal, citing that there was no actual impendence on the three river systems, except for the minimal effect of the leak in an isolated area in the outlet of the Liang river.
What is evident, Lawilao explained, is the contamination of the 1.8-kilometer stretch of the Liang River which was affected by the accidental tailing leak.
The BC official called on all concerned stakeholders to observe sobriety and calmness on the said issue because the company is doing its own clean-up of the affected river system while necessary interventions are also being put in place to prevent the occurrence of a similar incident in the future that would compromise the state of environment in the area.
He said it will be the PAB that will make a final ruling on the matter that is why it is best for everyone to await what will be the PAB’s decision on the matter in the future.
By HENT
