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[av_heading heading=’Capiz mining ban lifting ‘legal, valid’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY JOHN HEREDIA
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ROXAS City – Eight Sangguniang Panlalawigan members rejected a proposed ordinance seeking the reinstatement of the 50-year mining moratorium in Capiz.
Ordinance No. 9 series of 2016, which lifted the moratorium, is “legal and valid,” the committee on environment and natural resources stated in a report.
Provincial Board member Jonathan Besa, the proponent, was “not surprised.” He described the committee report made after the session on Wednesday “moro-moro (rigged).”
Eight Board members rejected the measure: committee chairman Eleuper Martinez, Jeffrey Layo, Eduardo Magallanes, Camilo Robles, Roberto Ignacio, Blesilda Almalbis, Lilia Demalata, and Karen Palomar.
Victor Tanco Jr. and Elmer Arevalo, Philippine Councilors’ League – Capiz president, supported Besa’s proposal.
The committee said Ordinance No. 9 “has passed the test of validity of an ordinance as enunciated by the Supreme Court in Magtajas vs. Pryce Properties Corporation (GR No. 111097, July 20, 1994).”
It was the same opinion Teresa Marble Corp., an Australian-owned mining company, stated in a position paper submitted to the committee.
“There is no reason for the [committee] to reinstate the moratorium on large-scale mining,” part of the report read.
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan lifted the mining ban reportedly in response to an appeal from Teresa Marble.
Twelve municipalities and this capital city have passed resolutions seeking the reinstatement of the moratorium.
The towns were Panay, Sapian, Dao, Mambusao, Ivisan, President Roxas, Tapaz, Sigma, Cuartero, Panitan, Dumalag, and Pontevedra.
But the committee argued it is within the power of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to enact Ordinance No. 9.
“Municipal governments are only agents of the national government,” part of the report read. “The delegate cannot be superior to the principal or exercise powers higher than those of the latter.”
Darlene Surriga of the Capiz Environmental Protection Alliance described the rejection a “rubout in broad daylight.”
“The eight Board members robbed the children of (Capiz) a bright future and a healthy environment,” she said.
The Madia-as Ecological Movement, Capiz Lawyers for the Environment, Roxas City Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association, and other cause-oriented groups and individuals also condemned the moratorium lifting.
“We denounce the members of the Provincial Board who signed the local law,” they said. “They are plunderers of nature.”/PN
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