Many undeveloped mining claims in JPanganiban

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

JOSE Panganiban Mayor Ricarte Padilla said that there are a number of undeveloped mining claims in his municipality and that they should be cancelled.

Paddila said “there are allegedly mining claims in our municipality which have never been actually used by the claimants.

“Dormant or unused mining claims are made as tools by claimants to collect royalty fees only without them (claimants) actually undertaking any mining operations.”

“This is one of the very reasons that we are applying for the declaration of our municipality as Mineral Reservation.”

Padilla has also proposed the cancellation of all unused mining claims in the LGU’s area of jurisdiction.

Padilla raised this concerns in a recently letter to Executive Secretary Paquito N Ochoa Jr, in which he appealed for the creation of a “municipal mining regulatory board”.

The mayor was reacting to a provision of a draft Executive Order entitled “Upgrading Environmental Standards and Increasing Government Revenues in Mining” creating a Provincial and/or City Mining Regulatory Board within three months from the effectivity of the EO.

Padilla said: We are perplexed as to the wisdom of the provision because most of the mining activities are conducted in municipalities and so rarely in the cities.

While most mining activities are done in municipalities, there is no such thing as the Municipal Mining Regulatory Board, he said.

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