Over tax, environmental violations: capitol shuts down pmsc

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has issued another cease and desist order to the Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC), as reinforcement to the Court of Appeals (CA) decision that upheld the validity of the Capitol’s previous executive orders halting the mining firm’s operation.

The CA nullified last year’s Regional Trial Court (RTC) order granting PMSC a writ of preliminary injunction. The recent CA ruling was issued last Tuesday.

“Considering the nullification of the order dated 26 April 2023, and the validity of Executive Orders 25-2020, 25-B-2020, and 7-2023, the Philippine Mining Service Corporation is hereby ordered immediately to cease and desist all processing, selling, and transporting of dolomite and associated quarry resources,” read Garcia’s Memorandum No. 24-2024.

The governor had ordered PMSC’s operations in Alcoy town in southern Cebu stopped due to alleged local tax and environmental violations. According to the Capitol, the mining firm continued to defy the orders of the governor.

After the issuance of Executive Order No. 7 last year, PMSC issued a statement saying that it received four local tax assessments from the Province of Cebu since 2020 and has protested the said assessments with the province.

“But since PMSC did not receive any reply from the province on the said protests, as mandated by applicable laws and jurisprudence, PMSC elevated the issue on the legality and validity of said tax assessments to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Cebu,” read the PMSC’s Feb. 17, 2023 statement.

On Feb. 3, 2023, the RTC granted PMSC a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction against the Capitol on the same month. The conflict was then elevated to the CA, which issued the recent order that the Capitol cited.

The Capitol has been pointing out the alleged environmental law violations committed by the mining firm in Alcoy. In September 2020, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources suspended PMSC because of the same violations but lifted the order by Nov. 3 of the same year.

“It must be stressed that the lifting of the suspension order was made only after a thorough investigation was made by a team from the DENR-7 through the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO-DENR) Cebu, Environmental Management Bureau-7 (EMB-7), Regional Office No. VII, and the Mines & Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Office No. VII,” PMSC said after that.

“Moreover, PMSC has been consistently monitored by the MultiPartite Monitoring Team (MMT) with respect to its compliance to the lifting order,” it added.

As to the recent memorandum issued by the governor, The Freeman tried to contact the mining firm for its side but received no response, as of press time.

The governor’s May 2 memorandum ordered the Municipality of Alcoy, Philippine National Police, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, and DENR to strictly implement its stipulation.

The Philippine Coast Guard was also tasked to ensure that no sea vessel docks at PMSC’s pier, until further notice. -