Green Activists Claim Monte Oro Has No Exploration Permit

LEGAZPI CITY - A local environmental NGO has charged that the controversial Monte Oro Resources Energy Inc. has no exploration permit for its mining operations in Catanduanes' three towns.

Pangataman-Bikol (Bicol Center for Environmental Protection) disclosed that based on documents obtained by their group from a reliable source in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Monte Oro does not possess authorization for its mining exploration activities.

According to Prof. Joel Batanes, president of Pangataman-Bikol, "based on a letter from the Environmental Management Bureau OIC Director Engr. Ely Anthony Ouano to Monte Oro President Walter Brown that was received last November 3, 2006, the bureau approved the Certificate of Non-Coverage (CNC) for the company's Catanduanes Coal Exploration Project and that the activity is outside the purview of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System."

Batanes underscored that there was a "marginal note written on the upper right-hand side of the letter which states 'CENRO. Pls. handle this with caution. Let them provide us the exploration permit not the CNC w/c is not a permit.'"

Batanes also pointed out that another letter, "this time from Monte Oro President Walter W. Brown to Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) OIC Benjamin J. Medel dated October 3, 2007," indicates that Monte Oro has asked the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) "to exclude 500 hectares from the Catanduanes Watershed Forest Reservation if found to contain commercial deposits."

Pangataman-Bikol decried that such events taking place in the desks of concerned government offices "is the height of temerity considering that since 2006 Monte Oro was being asked to present their exploration permit; a year passed and they had not presented any but instead asked for exempting 500 hectares from the protected areas."

The NGO also criticized the mining firm for not holding public consultations and instead tries "to hoodwink everyone into obeying their demands."

"This brazenness can only be explained by the closeness of Monte Oro with Malacanang; otherwise, they should have presented the exploration permit a long time ago," Batanes said.