Title
Greenhills Mining Co. vs. Office of the President
Case
G.R. No. 75962
Decision Date
Jun 30, 1988
Greenhills' mining claims in Southern Zambales were invalidated due to abandonment, reverting the area to public domain. Green Valley's exploration permit was upheld, granting it superior rights over the disputed land within the forest reserve.
mining claims
nullification
preferential rights
A

Case Digest (G.R. No. 75962)

Facts:

  • Nature of the petition and assailed administrative issuances
  • Greenhills Mining Company filed a petition seeking review of:
1) the decision dated July 8, 1986 issued by respondent Office of the President, signed by Deputy Executive Secretary Fulgencio S. Factoran, Jr., which declared all mining claims located and registered within the Southern Zambales Forest Reserve as null and void and granted Green Valley Company a preferential right to possess, exploit, develop and operate the area covered by its exploration permit; and 2) the order dated September 10, 1986 of the Office of the President denying Greenhills’s motion for reconsideration.
  • The petition also prayed for a preliminary injunction enjoining the respondent Director of the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences from acting on the renewal of Green Valley’s exploration permit covering the areas involved.
  • In a resolution dated November 12, 1986, the Court issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the Director of the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences from acting on the renewal application for Green Valley’s exploration permit.
  • Competing mining interests and the common area in controversy
  • The dispute involved a conflict between Greenhills’s mining claims and Green Valley’s exploration permit over an area within the Southern Zambales Forest Reserve and within the same mineral land.
  • Mining claims of different claimowners were previously located and registered in 1933 and 1934 with the Mining Recorder at Iba, Zambales under the Philippine Bill of 1902.
  • The earlier claims were later considered abandoned due to failure to pursue the claims and to perform annual assessment works.
  • Establishment of the Southern Zambales Forest Reserve
  • On January 18, 1956, then President Ramon Magsaysay issued Proclamation No. 245 establishing the Southern Zambales Forest Reserve with an area of 37,000 hectares, covering the municipalities of San Marcelino and Castillejos for soil protection, timber production, and other forest purposes.
  • The proclamation was subject to existing private rights.
  • Greenhills’s relocation activities and administrative filings
  • In 1970 and 1971, Greenhills relocated the previously abandoned mining claims of the original claimowners inside the reservation.
  • Greenhills executed certificates or declarations of location (DOL) covering 113 claims and registered them with the Mining Recorder.
  • Lode Lease Applications (LLAs) on the 113 claims were later filed with the Bureau of Mines.
  • Boundary survey plans or returns for the 113 claims were submitted and approved by the Mines Director on October 27, 1971, and the plans, together with lease applications, were published in the Official Gazette and in newspapers of general circulation.
  • Greenhills’s prospecting permit
  • On September 5, 1975, Greenhills applied with the Bureau of Forest Development (BFD) for a prospecting permit (Prospecting Permit No. 354-03079) covering 1,296 hectares within the reservation.
  • The BFD Director granted the prospecting permit on January 5, 1978 to expire six months thereafter, or on June 5, 1978.
  • Green Valley’s prospecting permit and progression to exploration
  • On March 1, 1979, Green Valley applied with the BFD for a prospecting permit over 4,800 hectares within the reservation.
  • The BFD granted Prospecting Permit No. 349-03179 to expire on August 31, 1979, and extended it to January 31, 1980.
  • On July 19, 1979, Green Valley filed with the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences (BMGS) an application for an exploration permit over the same area covered by its prospecting permit, plus additional areas covered by prospecting permits issued to Concepcion Lomotan, Dolores Montilla, and Asuncion Caguios.
  • The BMGS Mineral Lands and Topographic Survey Division (MLTSD) verified and issued reports dated August 17, 1979 and October 4, 1979, finding that Green Valley’s applied areas conflicted with the Greenhills group of claims.
  • In another report dated September 10, 1979, the Mineral Resources Administrative Division of the BMGS commented that Green Valley’s exploration permit could be given due course, contending that all mining claims in areas within the reserve were null and void pursuant to Section 28(a), Commonwealth Act No. 137.
  • Green Valley’s exploration permit applications were approved on October 16, 1979 and November 29, 1979, respectively, under Exploration Permit Nos. 79 and 80, covering 5,208.96 hectares.
  • Protests and orders within the administrative hierarchy
  • Aggrieved, Greenhills filed separate letter-protests with the BFD and the BMGS seeking cancellation of Green Valley’s prospecting and exploration permits.
  • Green Valley countered, among others, that the protest was moot and had no factual or legal basis because:
1) Greenhills’s alleged prospecting permit (Permit No. 354-03079) had long expired when Green Valley applied and was issued Prospecting Permit No. 439-83179; 2) Greenhills’s permit had been replaced by Green Valley’s approved exploration permits Exploration Permit Nos. 79 and 80 issued in October and November 1979; and 3) the Bureau of Forestry was no longer the proper forum; the issue involved validity of mining claims and should be filed with the proper forum.
  • Supporting Greenhills, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. (which operated Greenhills’s claims) sent letters dated May 4 and May 20, 1981, stating, among others, that:
1) the areas covered by Greenhills’s mining claims were previously covered by patentable mining claims duly located and registered in 1933 and 1934 under the Philippine Bill of 1902; 2) under McDaniel v. Apacible, reservation of public lands cannot include prior perfected mining locations; thus, areas covered by Greenhills’s mining claims should be segregated from the public domain open to relocation and registration; and 3) Greenhills’s mining claims had been surveyed, survey plans approved, and lease applications published in 1971 and 1973.
  • On June 5, 1981, the Director of the BFD issued an order directing amendment of Green Valley’s prospecting permit to exclude areas previously located and registered patentable mining claims, as shown in a sketch plan issued by the BMGS.
  • Greenhills, in a letter dated June 9, 1981, reiterated its requ...(Subscriber-Only)

Issues:

  • Validity of Greenhills’s mining claims in relation to the forest reserve requirement
  • Whether mining claims located under the Philippine Bill of 1902, later abandoned or forfeited, could be the subject of relocation by another person.
  • Whether the reservation of public lands under Proclamation No. 245 could be deemed to include areas previously covered by a valid mining location.
  • Whether Greenhills had valid mining claims as a relocator of the 1933 and 1934 patentable mining claims.
  • Jurisdictional and administrative competence issues
  • Whether the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences correctly ordered the exclusion of Green Valley’s permit areas covered by previously located and registered patentable mining claims based on certified declarations of locations filed in 1933 and 1934.
  • Whether issues on the validity of mining claims and overlapping should have been resolved by the proper forum, and the effect of MNR’s refusal to rule on validity of Greenhills’s claims.
  • Alleged procedural and statutory bars
  • Whether questions concerning the validity of Greenhills’s mining claims were already barred by statute.
  • Constitutional challenge to Green Valley’s arrangements
  • Whether the “Exploration Agreement with assignable Option to Purchase” executed between Green Valley Company and Gold Fields...(Subscriber-Only)
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