NV board denies receiving money

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — The members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan have denounced talk that they allegedly received money from a foreign mining company in exchange for their endorsement of its controversial multibillion-peso gold and copper project.

Board member Teodorico Padilla said they never received any single cent from the Australian firm Climax Arimco Mining Corp. (CAMC), which is behind the proposed mining venture in the remote mountain village of Didipio in Kasibu town.

"The allegation is unfair to the board members. We voted for the mining project based on our belief and conviction that this would economically benefit the Novo Vizcayanons and the entire country," Padilla said.

Last Wednesday, the 13-member provincial board endorsed the CAMC project unanimously, defying the Church-led anti-mining advocates’ call for its rejection.

The board’s approval overturned the project’s earlier rejection by the Kasibu municipal council.

In an earlier press statement, Fr. Vicente Tiam, parish priest of Saint Louis Beltran here, "criticized" the provincial board members for "heeding the call of money and not the real needs of the people of Kasibu."

In a joint statement, the Diocese of Bayombong, the Church-based Social Action Commission, the Didipio Earth-Savers Multipurpose Association and the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan also denounced what they described as the board’s unconstitutional endorsement of the project.

"We are condemning the unconstitutional actions of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and denouncing its willful disregard for the rule of law and the mandate of its elective office," they said in the statement.

Vice Gov. Jose Gambito, however, dismissed the statement, saying, "The provincial board has made known its stand on the Didipio mining (project) independent from that of the Kasibu council."

"It is not a review of an action of a lower sanggunian nor part of a legal process, hence jurisdiction or abuse of discretion is out of the question," he said.

Gambito, the board’s presiding officer, said the board members based their decision purely on the merits of the project and their own individual conscience and not on the dictates of the Catholic Church.

"You should not condemn people simply because they have a different opinion. A statement that the provincial board heeded the call of money is obviously an un-Christian statement emanating from an irresponsible and malicious dirty mind," he said.

For her part, board member Maybelle Dumlao, whom the anti-mining advocates earlier counted as an ally in their fight against the CAMC project, dismissed the allegations as "baseless."

"I must say that any allegations against (us) must be proven, otherwise they are just hearsay, untrue and (have) no basis," said the 25-year-old Dumlao, the youngest provincial board member.

Other board members, including Edu Balgos, Patricio Dumlao and Merly Talingdan, who chairs the board’s committee on environment, have declined to comment.

In an earlier pastoral letter, Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena, the spiritual leader of the local anti-mining advocates, called on the provincial board members to similarly reject the project as the Kasibu councilors did.

The anti-mining groups, which described the Didipio project as "anti-people, anti-environment and anti-development," are reportedly set to hold an indignation rally today.