Ruling favors Tampakan project THE Dipolog Regional Trial Court...

Ruling favors Tampakan project

THE Dipolog Regional Trial Court has set a “judicial trend” in ruling against a ban on open-pit mining, which may eventually help resolve the Tampakan project debacle, an official said Tuesday.

“The ruling of the Dipolog [court] saying the Zamboanga del Norte province cannot impose an open-pit mining ban is a judicial trend or what we call a case of first impression,” said Jess Dureza, a lawyer and former presidential adviser on Mindanao affairs.

“It is an important step to help the national government or even the Supreme Court to finally make a ruling on this issue,” he said.

Dureza, former head of the Mindanao Development Authority, said the decision of the Dipolog court might eventually help the Tampakan mining project in South Cotabato.

“Both the Zamboanga del Norte issue and the South Cotabato issue are related not because both involve open-pit mining but because it is an issue on constitutionality,” Dureza said.

“It is principally the same issue, which is that a local government cannot disallow that which is allowed by a national law.

“What is significant here is that the ruling of the Dipolog court agrees with the national government in saying that open-pit mining is allowed by the Mining Act.”

Dureza said the South Cotabato provincial government had the prerogative to decide on the Tampakan project, but this was a good opportunity for the province to re-assess its own position on banning open-pit mining.

“We have to stop local government units from passing ordinances that contradict our national laws and uphold the rule of law,” Dureza said.

He said the question now for South Cotabato was “whether to continue with its ban on open-pit mining when it may be just be stricken out by the courts using the Dipolog [court] ruling as precedence.”