Diocese of Marbel, LRC challenge ‘restrictive’ DENR FOI policy
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / December 1) – The Diocese of Marbel is questioning the Freedom of Information (FOI) policy of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) before the Supreme Court, citing as basis for the petition, among others, the denial of requests for information involving the controversial $5.9 billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato.
Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas and the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) petitioned the Supreme Court to void the DENR FOI policy “as it restricted access to environmental information of public concern.”
Named respondents in the petition filed on November 18, a copy of which MindaNews has obtained, are Executive Secretary Ralph Recto and DENR Secretary Raphael Petilla.
The petition challenges DENR Administrative Order No. 2016-29, or the DENR FOI Manual, which has a “List of Exceptions” that prohibits public access to, among others, environmental records for projects already granted environmental compliance certificates (ECCs).
Both Recto and Petilla have not yet issued public pronouncements on the petition.
The Tampakan project is the largest undeveloped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia and among the largest of its kind in the world.
Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) has been granted the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) by the Philippine government, allowing it to explore and develop the mining tenement covering Tampakan in South Cotabato, Columbio in Sultan Kudarat Kiblawan in Davao del Sur, and Malungon in Sarangani.
“The Tampakan mine would probably alter river systems coursing through four different provinces in Mindanao and require the clearing of old-growth forests. As it would directly affect thousands, if not millions, of Filipinos, the public certainly has the right to know the terms granted to the mining company in its (FTAA),” Casicas said in a statement.
“Let us heed the late Pope Francis in his Laudato Si’ calling for a ‘new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet,’ a ‘conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all’,” he added.
Atty. Rolly Francis Peoro, LRC Direct Legal Services coordinator, said the “restrictive” DENR FOI Manual practically barred access to, much less scrutinize, environmental information of 447 major environmentally critical projects that have been issued ECCs by the DENR.
“DENR’s repeated denials of our FOI requests over potentially destructive and anomalous environmentally critical projects that the concerned public has a right to hold accountable are clearly a grave abuse of discretion,” he said.
Peoro said they also requested copies of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) of other controversial large-scale mines as well as environmental information on reported “ghost” flood control and dredging projects in the country.
Most of these requests made over the course of the past two years would be repeatedly denied by the DENR, citing the List of Exceptions of their FOI Manual, he said.
“With the systemic and arbitrary denial of requests for environmentally critical information, the people’s rights to health, to due process, and to a balanced and healthful ecology are also threatened,” Dean Tony La Viña, co-counsel for the petitioners, said in the same statement.
“The petitioners, the affected communities, and the broader concerned public are rendered blind—and therefore unable to demand due diligence or accountability—to whatever ecological risks posed by any environmentally critical project they face.”
Aside from seeking to declare the DENR FOI Manual as unconstitutional, the petitioners also sought a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and/or a Writ of Preliminary Injunction to enjoin the DENR from implementing the FOI Manual, and to allow the petitioners and the public to access EIS and all other related environmental information filed in the process of an application for ECC before the DENR. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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