Pangulong Marcos suportado ni CamSur Rep. Villafuerte sa pagsasalegal ng small-scale miners

NI NOEL ABUEL

Suportado ni Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte si Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong”  Marcos Jr. na atasan ang Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) na pag-aralan na gawing legal ang operasyon ng mga small-scale miners upang mabigyan ang mga ito ng pamahalaan ng social protection at skills training.

 “Environment Secretary Toni Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga must act with dispatch on the President’s recent directive for the DENR to strengthen the regulatory framework for small-scale mining with the end view of legalizing the preponderantly unsupervised and perilous activities of these small miners while better protecting the environment,” sabi ni Villafuerte.

 “The legalization of more small-scale mining activities, as sought by President Marcos,  would let the DENR and its Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) effectively track the extractive activities of these small-scale miners and promote their  safety, provide financial incentives for these now largely unsupervised type of extractive activities, generate higher revenue from the mining sector, and do a  better job of protecting the environment,” dagdag nito.

Suportado rin ni Villafuerte ang panukala ng Pangulo sa Kongreso na amiyendahan ang Republic Act (RA) 7065, o ang “People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991”.

Idinagdag pa ng kongresista na dapat na makipagtulungan ang DENR sa Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) at iba pang ahensya ng pamahalaan para sa implementasyon ng RA 7076 upang mawala na ang mga illegal miners.

Ayon kay Villafuerte, na pangulo ng National Unity Party (NUP), ipinarating ni Yulo-Loyzaga sa pagdinig ng Commission on Appointment (CA) na nasa 49 Minahang Bayan applications ng mga  small-scale mining areas ang naaprubahan mula nang lagdaan at maging batas ang RA 7076 ni dating Pangulong Corazon Aquino noong 1991.

Ang People’s Small-Scale Mining Areas o Minahang Bayan areas ay mga lugar kung saan naroroon ang mga small-scale miners na pinapayagang magmina ng ginto, silver at chromite.

“The legalization of small-scale mining is definitely a lot better way of monitoring the operations of these miners, because it certainly is far more difficult for the DENR and MGB to track the activities of small-scale miners if they continue operating  outside Minahang Bayan areas,” sabi nito.