WHEN acting Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo recently ordered the provincial government of South Cotabato to suspend implementation of its environment code that bans open-pit mining in the province while pending its review, little did he realize that he was stirring a hornet’s next.
It came in the form of a rejection by the provincial government led by Governor Arturo Pingoy of Robredo’s memorandum order, claiming that only a court can issue such a stoppage order. The governor said he would go ahead and implement the open-pit ban, unless otherwise ordered to desist by a court.
The governor’s decision to defy Robredo’s order is backed by local government officials in South Cotabato who maintain that the DILG has no power to dictate to the local government in matters like implementation of ordinances.
In the eye of the brewing storm between the DILG and the South Cotabato government is the massive copper and gold project of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) which is controlled by Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer. SMI regards the environment code as a stumbling block to its operations.
It goes without saying that the provincial government’s concern are the presumed negative effects of open-pit mining on the environment and, ultimately, on the health of its constituents for generations to come, notwithstanding the perceived economic benefits the SMI operations are supposed to redound to the population. That is the primordial responsibility of the local government towards the people of South Cotabato.
As for Secretary Robredo, one may question his sudden interest in the squabble between the provincial government and Sagittarius Mines, Inc. Whatever ill effects the mine operations will have on the people of South Cotabato are neither here nor there where Secretary Robredo is concerned and he couldn’t care less. Ditto SMI, which is only there to extract all the copper (and gold) it can and, when they are done, go back where they came from, none the worse for wear.
It will be interesting to see how the quarrel between the local government and the DILG pans out. No doubt local government units elsewhere in the land are watching how this unfolding drama will end, mindful of the precedent it will leave behind which will affect future relations between Imperial Manila represented by the DILG and the rest of the country.
