Small-scale mining applications will no longer be accepted in the Provincial Board after a resolution declaring a 25-year moratorium on endorsement of mining applications was finally approved Nov. 18. The Board came up with the decision following several deliberations and public hearings discussing the matter.

According to the resolution, the Board “believes that the numerous mining applications . . . will definitely imperil and threaten Palawan’s fragile ecological balance, cause irreparable damage to its unique flora and fauna and in general, seriously compromise the carrying capacity of its integrated ecosystem.”

There are more than 300 small-scale mining applications, pending before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), targeting Palawan.

Vice-Gov. David Ponce de Leon, chairman of the Committee of the Whole, explained that the moratorium was for the 300 pending applications from DENR which, according to him, might cause damage to the environment once approved.

The resolution also declared the Provincial Board’s “firm resolve to oppose at any time any large scale mining application or to press for the nullification of existing mineral agreements and for the cessation of their mining operations for incompatibility with the Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan (SEP).”

Authors of the legislation, however, expressed their disappointment over the decision that the moratorium was declared as a resolution and not an ordinance, as originally proposed.

An ordinance is an authoritative rule implemented in a specific city or province while a resolution only states a sentiment of a policy-making body.

Ponce de Leon earlier said that the resolution might only last until 2010 when their term in the Provincial Board ends. According to him, the next members of the Board may not have the same sentiment as theirs.

“(I) cannot help but feel disappointed and disheartened that the original intention cannot be laid possible because we do have limitations,” Board Member Vicky de Guzman stated.

“(I) believe that we here in Palawan has ample legal basis to consider if our environment is the issue,” she added citing the SEP Law.

Ponce de Leon, on the other hand, clarified that a local government unit (LGU) has no power to declare a moratorium as an ordinance.

“For this August Body to adopt by ordinance a mining moratorium would be a contravention of the decisions of the Supreme Court and the pronouncements of the departments of government,” Ponce de Leon said referring to the decisions made by the Supreme Court on similar cases as well as to the opinions issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

“We cannot enforce this as an ordinance because according to the decisions of the DOJ, an ordinance cannot prohibit and ban mining. That’s beyond the authority of LGUs,” he further explained.

According to Ponce de Leon, provinces such as Mindoro, Marinduque, Samar, and Capiz were able to declare a mining moratorium ordinance in their areas because the DOJ and DILG had not yet issued an opinion back then.

He added that “precisely because of these actions by LGUs why the DOJ and DILG issued such opinions.”

The rulings stated that “it is not within the authority of these local government units to ban activities allowed by the national government.”