Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes said he welcomes the Sandiganbayan probe on his alleged patronage of a mining firm that was given preferential treatment by the provincial government.
Reyes and an official of the local mining board are facing charges before the anti-graft body for allegedly granting undue favors to a mining company operating in the province.
Saying the charges were issues that have already been answered before, Reyes denied the accusations, citing the strict monitoring and regulatory system practiced by the local government to ensure that opportunities for graft and corruption are eliminated as far as mining activities in Palawan are concerned.
In a statement, Reyes said all mining-related activities have to pass the close scrutiny and approval of a multipartite monitoring team composed of people from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, a non-governmental organization, the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, and the Environmental Management Bureau.
Reyes said the “mysterious resurrection” of the cases happened after the PMRB sued two mining firms for alleged mineral theft.
Their employees, according to the governor, were allegedly caught in the act of illegally transporting P1 million worth of aggregates and filling materials.
The two mining companies reportedly have the same owner.
Reyes issued the statement after he and fellow respondent, PMRB member Andronico Baguyo, posted a bail of P30,000 each last Wednesday morning after the Sandiganbayan issued warrants for their arrest last Friday.
The graft cases stemmed from the complaint filed in August 2006 by Fernando Santos of Quezon City as the representative of an environmentalist group called Katipunan Para sa Kalikasan.
The group claimed that the PMRB’s indiscriminate issuance of ore transport permits to a small-scale mining company led to an over-extraction of minerals.
This, according to the group, constitutes violation of the Mining Act. The complaint claimed that as a result of the violation, the mining firm in question was able to extract mineral ore beyond the 50,000 metric-ton annual limit allowed by law.
Reyes said no over-extraction occurred since the permits issued covered a period of two years, allowing the small-scale mining firm to extract 50,000 tons of ore annually for two years and, therefore, entitled to ship a combined volume of 200,000 dry metric tons of ore.
“We shall seek for an immediate and speedy trial to finally put an end, once and for all, to these malicious and fabricated allegations. Hopefully the investigation will unmask the true perpetrators behind this blackmail,” he said.