OPPOSITION Critics of the mining project in Tampakan, South Cotabato, brave the heat to file a case on Friday in Koronadal City challenging the 12-year extension granted to its proponent. —BONG S. SARMIENTO KORONADAL CITY—Thousands of people marched towards a local court here on Friday to file a petition challenging the 12-year extension granted to the controversial mining project in Tampakan town, South Cotabato, which hosts the largest undeveloped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia.
Bishop Cerilo Casicas of the Diocese of Marbel led the petition for certiorari against the extended Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) granted by the government to Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) in 2016. The SMI operates the $5.
9-billion Tampakan project, which will reportedly start commercial production in 2026 employing open-pit mining, a method currently banned by the provincial government’s environment code. FTAA No. 002-95-XI was originally granted to Australian firm Western Mining Corp.
(WMC) on March 22, 1995. SMI acquired the FTAA from WMC in 2001 with the approval of then Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez. The FTAA has a lifespan of 25 years and can be renewed for the same period.
The 12-year extension was granted in 2016, four years before the FTAA’s expiry, by Leo Jasareno, then director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), on June 8, 2016 “by authority of the secr.
