DENR cancels 84 'idle' mining permits.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Christine A. Gaylican

THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources has cancelled 84 mining permits, also known as mining production sharing agreements or MPSAs, that were issued in the last 24 years and which covered areas that remained undeveloped or non-performing to this day.

Environment Secretary Michael Defensor, in a briefing yesterday, said his agency and the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences suspect that holders of these permits apparently had no intention to develop their respective mining areas but were just planning to lease out the claims to other groups so they could collect fees or royalties.

An MPSA is a 25-year contract granted exclusively to corporations majority owned by Filipinos for the exploration of a maximum of 16,200 hectares of land and, subsequently, for the commercial exploitation of a maximum of 5,000 hectares of mineral land.

A list provided by the DENR showed that among the MPSAs cancelled were those granted to Crescent Mining Development Corp., Josephine M. Cojuangco, Pyro Copper Mining Corp., Samar Mining Corp., Bonifacia Benitez, Romulo B. Reyes, Eufemia Montilla, Linfair Development Corp., the heirs of Vicente Raneses, Edgardo Cardozo and the heirs ...