Zambo Norte solon calls out DENR over mining issues in Gutalac

MANILA, Philippines – “It is DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This is not the Department of Mining Companies.”

Zamboanga del Norte 3rd District Representative Adrian Michael Amatong has this to say as he urged the DENR to act on the activities of a mining company supposedly planning to conduct mining activities in the entire Gutalac town in the province.

During the House Committee on Appropriations’ budget hearing for the DENR on Wednesday, Amatong raised the mining company’s current operation in Gutalac and asked for assurance that the agency would not let it operate across the entire municipality.

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Responding to this, DENR Undersecretary for Field Operations Marcus Fragada said, “We give you our assurance. We are monitoring the area since they just started.”

Fragada added that what the DENR is promoting is the “progressive rehabilitation” in every area with mining activities.

Meanwhile, Amatong said that the mining activity in Gutalac supposedly “started wrong for not having a free and prior informed consent process.”

“Yung mga indigenous people diyan, hindi naman pumayag talaga eh. Kaya lang, ang ginawa nila is, nag-organize sila ng ibang grupo. Tapos, kung anong ginawa nila sa papeles, lumalabas na meron silang prior consent na wala naman talaga. Ito naman, mga pumayag naman na i-recognize yun,” he said.

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(The indigenous people there didn’t really agree. So what they did was, they organized another group. Then, they made it appear like they had prior consent that they didn’t really have one, Then they agreed to recognize that.)

Amatong also mentioned what he described as a very bad experience with the DENR in their area, recalling that during the exploration process, the mining company was allegedly already cutting down hundreds of trees.

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He added that when he asked that DENR regional office to intervene, he only received an answer that those who supposedly cut the trees were actually “illegal loggers.”

“Papasok ba yung illegal loggers? I mean, di ba? So, I’d like to remind the DENR that our responsibility is to respect and to protect our environment,” Amatong said showing frustration. 

(Will the illegal loggers come in? I mean? I’d like to remind the DENR that our responsibility is to respect and to protect our environment.)

“It’s DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This is not the Department of Mining Companies,” he emphasized.

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DENR Acting Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna, meanwhile, assured that they would note all of Amatong’s concerns and that their regional officials would report directly to the lawmaker about the matter.

“We will have our enforcement office from the central office look into the allegations of the good congressman,” Cuna said.

In 2022, Florjenmar Mining and Development Corporation, in partnership with Zamboanga Nickel Corporation, secured a permit from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau for a mine site in Brgy. Bacong in Gutalac.

The Environmental Management Bureau issued a cease-and-desist order against all development activities in February 2023 after protests that the activity would threaten the watershed and the indigenous peoples’ ancestral domain.

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But only a month later, the DENR lifted the cease-and-desist order after receiving the certification precondition from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. /gsg