DENR urged to cancel Rosemoor’s permit to mine Biak-na-Bato

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is being urged to cancel the mining permit issued to Rosemoor Mining and Development Corp. (RMDC) which operates in the Biak-na-Bato national park in Bulacan.

Heherson T. Alvarez, founding chairman of the environmental organization EarthSavers Movement and former Secretary of the DENR, alleged that RMDC which was granted a mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) in 2002, has been illegally mining inside the mineral reservation park.

"It must be emphasized that the MPSA – a permit to mine a 330-hectare area in the historic mountains of Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan – was not granted to mine inside the national park, but outside the park and within a mineral reservation area where mining is allowed by law," said Alvarez.

About 658 hectares of Biak-na-Bato has been declared as a national park and 480 hectares as a forest reserve. During the time of DENR Secretary Fulgencio Factoran, 953 hectares was set aside as a mineral reservation.

President Aquino intended the mineral reservation as a source of livelihood because the area is the only source of pink marble with white strands.

RMDC owner Dr. Lourdes S. Pascual fought a 20-year legal battle, beginning in 1986, for the right to mine in the area for 25 years. In 2001, the Court of Appeals decided in favor of Rosemoor, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court on March 30, 2004.

Alvarez said that when the DENR granted the MPSA to Rosemoor, "it was clearly implementing the Court of Appeals ruling and acknowledging at the same time Dr. Pascual’s legal rights which she won in court after 20 years."

He said the MPSA was granted under very strict conditionalities, among which was the use of sustainable rules in mining that require modern cutting tools, like the ones employed by Teresa Marbles in Antipolo City, that bans destructive and obsolete dynamite blasting.

Alvarez said RMDC failed to comply with certain conditionalities and it was not permitted to quarry.

"Being a mere privilege, a mining permit is not a license that vests absolute rights in the holder to mine. Rosemoor was given an MPSA in a mineral reservation but they cannot mine against the rules of sustainable development. Once Rosemoor’s operations go against conditions of sustainable development, which was the basis for the granting of the MPSA in the first place, its permit must be revoked or cancelled."