Bulacan mining firm loses license

First posted 10:43pm (Mla time) June 29, 2006
Inquirer

http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=7312

Editor's Note: Published on Page A18 of the June 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
CITY OF MALOLOS—Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes has cancelled the mining lease contract of a mining firm operating in Doña Remedios Trinidad (DRT) town after it was found to have illegally cut trees.

Angel Bravo, director of the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) in Central Luzon, said the Matatag Mining Corp. (MMC) was ordered by Reyes to pay more than P2.5 million in forest charges for cutting trees and damaging the 9-hectare quarry site of Oro Development Corp. (Odeco) in Barangay Camachin in DRT.

Odeco was earlier allowed to operate in Barangay Camachin under a mines operating agreement with MMC.

But Reyes ordered the cancellation of the MOA after residents complained that the MMC had been cutting down trees and poaching timber.

Bravo said the trees were cut by MMC during its mining operations within the Odeco mining site in Camachin last year.

This was confirmed by environment officers assigned to the area, he said.
Reyes also lifted the suspension of the mining lease contract of Odeco but asked the firm to rehabilitate the areas damaged by the MMC mining operations.

The campaign to protect the environment has become deadly for some officials of the DENR.
In Cotabato City, unidentified men waylaid the service vehicle of Maguindanao environment officer Kahal Kedtag late Wednesday, police said yesterday.

Kedtag remains in critical condition at a hospital here following the attack that occurred in front of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) building outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) complex.

Senior Insp. Samson Obatay, city police spokesperson, said Kedtag’s relative, Abdulatip Kedtag, who was driving the official’s Honda CRV, died in the ambush.

Obatay said aside from the environment official, two civilians—9-year-old Mariel Catangay, and Dexter Cahayag, 18—were also injured in the attack.

“Kedtag was the main target of the gunmen. We believe they were guns for hire,” he said. Carmela Reyes, PDI Central Luzon Desk and Edwin Fernandez and Charlie Señase with a report from Julie Alipala, PDI Mindanao Bureau