Lafayette test run ‘reasonable’

First posted 05:05pm (Mla time) June 14, 2006
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQ7.net

http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=4886

BOLSTERED by support from the mining industry, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday said the decision to allow Australia's Lafayette Mining Inc. to undertake a 30-day test run was "reasonable."

Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said it was just fair to give the mining firm a chance to prove it can implement remedial measures in its operations in Rapu-Rapu, Albay following the mine tailings spills on October 11 and 31 last year.

After a seven-month suspension, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) allowed Lafayette to conduct the test run to check if the remedial measures it has put in place will work.

The decision was reached despite the recommendation by a Malacañang-created fact finding body to cancel Lafayette's environmental clearance certificate.

"The 30-day period was just reasonable. We support the sound decision made by the DENR to move the process forward on a win-win basis," Bunye said.

"We are confident that the DENR will closely scrutinize the test-run by Lafayette to enable the government to come up with a more definitive decision on this issue - under the standards of full transparency and accountability to all stakeholders," he added.

In a separate interview, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila said mining industry officials expressed their appreciation for the DENR's decision in a meeting Wednesday morning with the President in Malacañang.

He said the decision erased their doubts on the government's capability to implement the Mining Law.

Representatives of the business sector were also at the meeting called by Arroyo to seek their assessment of the government's programs toward improving the economy, Favila added.