DENR to release new TSSMP order

April 14, 2019 Provincial

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to release an order regarding the processing and awarding of Temporary Small-Scale Mining Permit (TSSMP) in Benguet Province.

A reliable source said recently that top officials of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the National Commission of Indigenous People (NCIP) have crafted separate positions about the issuance of temporary small-scale mining permit.

The source further said, the position papers are now being consolidated and reviewed by MGB’s Legal Office in Quezon City before it will be forwarded to DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu for his appropriate action and order to be issued.

The source hinted that both positions are “favorable” for small-scale miners in the processing of their TSSMP, lamenting the NCIP’s requirement on Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) has
been the “stumbling block.”

Consent of large mining companies is also among the problems besetting small-scale miners.

On Monday (April 8), Benguet Federation of Small- Scale Miners, Inc (BFSSM) president Lomino Kaniteng went to the MGB office in Quezon City and personally delivered a letter from PMRB addressed to Secretary Cimatu, reiterating the Board’s resolution on the guidelines in the processing and awarding of TSSMP.

Kaniteng volunteered to deliver the PMRB letter during the last Benguet Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) meeting where the issue on TSSMP was discussed.

Recently, the Board approved a guideline crafted by its Technical Working Group (TWG) allowing pocket miners with pending petitions for a Minahang Bayan (MB) to operate the respective area(s) through a TSSMP for a period of six months.

The PMRB backed the guideline, adopting resolution No. 002, Series 2019, citing Sec. 23 of Republic Act 7076 (People’s Small-Mining Act of 1991), which “provides that small-scale miners who have been in actual operation of mineral lands on or before August 1,1987, as determined by the board shall not be dispossessed, ejected, or removed from said areas.”

“The Board received petitions by various small-scale miners (Itogon) for the lifting of the Stoppage Order against them, in order for them to have a source of livelihood and survive,” the resolution read.

Primo Agatep/ABN