Benguet Nickel taking DENR to court

MANILA, Philippines - Benguet Nickel Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Benguet Corp., will take legal action against the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as it contests the unlawful suspension of its operations.

In a statement, BNMI said it would file a Petition for Certiorari with Injunction to assail the suspension order jointly issued by the DENR and its attached agencies Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).

“Seeing that BNMI is left with no other viable administrative remedy, it is constrained to elevate to the courts the matter of the unlawful suspension of its nickel mining operations,” the company said.

Last July, the DENR suspended the operations of all mining companies in Zambales  including BNMI, Zambales Diversified Metals Corp., LNL Archipelago Minerals and Eramen Minerals due to environmental complaints.

BNMI said despite its full compliance with remediation conditions under the previous lifting order last year, the regional government agencies unjustifiably refused to reverse the suspension order.

“After careful consideration, BNMI is constrained to take this judicial recourse in order to protect itself, its workers and the affected communities which depend on the corporation for their livelihood and support,” it said.

The company emphasized that it has exerted efforts to assure the DENR of its continued undertaking to conduct responsible and sustainable mining activities and its willingness to be an active partner of the government in protecting the environment.

“These efforts proved to be unsuccessful, as the anti-mining groups and even the DENR representatives rejected BNMI’s fair and reasonable proposal and continue to appear bent on endorsing an unjust arrangement which will deprive the mining companies of any recourse against the results of the audit and, worse, will require them to summarily acknowledge alleged liabilities for compensation and rehabilitation, without immediate prospect of resuming operations,” it said.

BNMI maintained that the “unjustifiable suspension” of its operations has taken toll not only on the corporation but on  its workers, contractors and suppliers, and the community as well.

The company has already laid off more than 1000 workers since the issuance of the suspension order.

“We have no choice but to resort to legal action to obtain an equitable resolution to this controversy and to avoid irreversible financial damage to our business and ease the hardship on other affected stakeholders,” BNMI said.

BNMI, however, remains confident its operations will not pose any threat to the environment once the DENR allows the resumption of its operations.