Lepanto yet to hear from DENR after mining audit

BENGUET, Philippines – Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. has yet to receive official communication from the Environment department on a reported show-cause order on its operations.

 

This, after the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources has ordered at least 20 mining firms, including Lepanto, to explain why they should not be suspended after an industry-wide audit to check for violations of environmental guidelines.

 

“We cannot intelligently respond yet as we have not received any communication from the DENR,” said Joan Gatchalian, spokesperson of the LCMC Mine division in Mankayan, Benguet.

 

But Gatchalian said that according to an audit report signed last month by both the head of the DENR audit team and a Lepanto representative, “the company complied with the pertinent provisions of the Environmental and Mining laws, rules and regulations, thus no penalty is recommended by the Team.”

 

Environment Secretary Gina Lopez said this week that she would meet with representatives of the mining firms next week to get their side.

 

“They need to get their acts together,” she said.

 

READ: 20 mining firms face suspension

 

Meanwhile, the Benguet Corporation in Itogon, also in Benguet, has stayed silent about the audit team's recommendation. 

 

Earlier, residents of Ucab, Itogon blamed the company for a collapsed portion that destroyed less than a dozen houses there, leaving families homeless and raising concerns of similar incidents. The company blamed the past typhoons for causing the ground to become soft and sink.

 

Lepanto's biggets critic — the anti-mining Cordillera Peoples' Alliance (CPA) — welcomed the DENR recommendation for the temporary suspension of LCMC's operations, though it said it is disappointed that Philex Mining Co., in Padcal, Tuba, Benguet, is not included in the list of suspended firms.

 

Jill Cariño, vice chairperson of the CPA said, “the suspension by the DENR is a good move especially now that the downstream communities are experiencing the long-term effects of LCMC operation.”

 

Cariño added that, “more importantly, the recommended suspension of LCMC is also a result of the peoples' struggle against the mining company due to its environmental impact on their communities.”

 

In 2015, the operations of the LCMC in Mankayan, Benguet, reportedly brought disaster to the people of the southern Abra river basin.

 

Towards the end of August 2015, Lepanto’s mine tailings either overtopped their dam or were deliberately released to reduce pressure that was building up behind the dam from the heavy rains unleashed by Typhoon Ineng (or Goni). 

 

In any case, the tailings entered the Abra river system. The Abra swelled and flooded over, depositing some of the tailings at its junctures with its tributaries, clogging these and thus causing upstream flooding. 

 

As it continued downstream, still laden with tailings, the turbulent Abra washed away some irrigation dikes and rice fields. Agricultural land was flooded and filled with tailings. 

 

The damage affected at least 500 farmer households in the municipalities of Mankayan in Benguet, Cervantes, Quirino, and San Emilio in Ilocos Sur, and Tubo in Abra province.

 

LCMC has repeatedly denied CPA’s accusations over the years and blamed these issues as pure “leftist” propaganda.

 

The Ilocos-based anti-mining group Defend-Ilocos also welcomed the DENR post-audit recommendation but Sherwin de Vera, regional coordinator of the group said, “suspension is not enough, its operation must stop to save the Abra River.