Case Digest (G.R. No. 137174)
Facts:
Republic of the Philippines, represented by the Pollution Adjudication Board (DENR) v. Marcopper Mining Corporation, G.R. No. 137174, July 10, 2000, Supreme Court Third Division, Gonzaga-Reyes, J., writing for the Court. Petitioner is the Republic of the Philippines through the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB); respondent is Marcopper Mining Corporation (MMC).MMC operated a tailings sea-disposal system under a Temporary Permit to Operate (TPO) issued in 1985 which expired in February 1987. After protests and administrative directives, MMC was ordered on April 11, 1988 by the DENR Secretary (as PAB Chairman) to cease discharging tailings into Calancan Bay; the DENR undersecretary issued a telegraphic order of immediate compliance on April 15, 1988. MMC appealed to the Office of the President (O.P.), docketed O.P. Case No. 3802. On May 13, 1988 the O.P. set aside its earlier denial of a restraining order and enjoined the PAB from enforcing its cease-and-desist order, while directing MMC, during the effectiveness of that restraining order, to undertake rehabilitation at a cost of not less than P30,000.00 per day, with deposits to an Ecology Trust Fund (ETF).
MMC made deposits to the ETF from May 13, 1988 until it stopped discharging tailings and remitting contributions on July 1, 1991, the total amounting to P32,975,000.00. MMC informed the O.P. on July 9, 1991 that it would discontinue payments because it had stopped dumping. On February 5, 1993 the O.P. dismissed MMC’s appeal, affirmed the PAB cease-and-desist order and lifted the May 13, 1988 restraining order.
In January 1997 Marinduque Mayor Wilfredo Red lodged a complaint with the PAB (DENR-PAB Case No. 04-00597-96) alleging MMC violated PD 984 and its rules by ceasing payments. In an April 23, 1997 Order the PAB ruled MMC’s obligation to pay P30,000.00 per day subsisted from May 13, 1988 up to the formal lifting of the O.P. restraining order on February 5, 1993, and ordered MMC to pay arrears computed from July 1, 1991 (when it stopped paying) through February 5, 1993.
MMC filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition with the Court of Appeals (CA-G.R. SP No. 44656) challenging the PAB Order as void for lack or grave abuse of jurisdiction; the CA required comments and, after hearing, issued a writ of preliminary injunction on September 19, 1997 conditioned on MMC filing a P500,000 bond. On January 7, 1998 the Court of Appeals (Sixth Division, Amin, J., ponente) promulgated a Decision granting the petition and setting aside the PAB Order dated April 23, 1997; the CA held that under Republic Act No. 7942 (Philippine Mining Act of 1995) the mines regional director (and related mining adjudicative panels) supplanted the PAB in policing pollution related to mining, and that MMC’s obligation in any event ceased when it stopped dumping and because the ETF had sufficient funds. The CA denied reconsideration on January 13, 1999.
The PAB (through the Office of the Solicitor General) brought this Rule 45 petition for review on certiorari to the Supreme Court, challenging (1) the CA’s conclusion that R.A. 7942 repealed or divested PAB’s jurisdiction over pollution cases involving mining; (2) the CA’s finding that MMC had n...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Did R.A. 7942 (the Philippine Mining Act of 1995) repeal or otherwise divest the Pollution Adjudication Board of its jurisdiction to adjudicate pollution complaints connected with mining operations previously governed by R.A. 3931, as amended by P.D. No. 984, and EO No. 192?
- Is Marcopper Mining Corporation obliged to pay P30,000.00 per day to the Ecology Trust Fund from July 1, 1991 (when it stopped paying) up to February 5, 1993 (the date the O.P. lifted its restraining order), i.e., does MMC have arrears?
- Was MMC deprived of due process by the PAB’s issuance of the April 23, 1997...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)