‘WALANG MINING SA PROTECTED ZONE’: DENR denies mining operations in protected park

ISABELA, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has denied allegations that it allowed mining operations inside the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park (NSMNP), calling viral social media posts suggesting that mining was authorized within the protected area “misleading.”

In a fact-check advisory issued Monday, October 26, through its Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), the agency clarified that the mining operation being discussed online is located outside the boundaries of the protected park and its designated buffer zone.

The DENR explained that a national media report published last year quoted the MGB confirming that the mining site was outside the protected area's boundaries. However, a Facebook page allegedly rewrote the original headline and circulated it on social media, creating the impression that the government had approved mining inside the protected park.

“This is misleading. DENR will never allow mining or any activity that disturbs strictly protected areas. We remain committed to upholding environmental laws and protecting the country's biodiversity and natural heritage,” the agency said.

The clarification came amid public backlash over mining operations associated with Dinapigue Mining Corp., a subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corp., in the Sierra Madre mountain range, with critics raising concerns over deforestation and environmental damage.

The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, known as “The Last Great Forest,” is the country's largest protected area, covering 287,861 hectares of land and 71,625 hectares of coastal waters in Isabela province.

It encompasses Palanan, Divilacan, Maconacon, and portions of San Pablo, Cabagan, Tumauini, Ilagan, San Mariano, and Dinapigue.

The protected area was established through Presidential Proclamation No. 978 on March 10, 1997, to conserve Luzon's largest remaining tropical rainforest and its rich biodiversity, including endemic wildlife and interconnected mountain, river, mangrove, seagrass, and coral reef ecosystems.

In 2001, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 9125, or the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park Act of 2001, which established the park's boundaries and prohibited commercial logging, mining, quarrying, unauthorized hunting, and other destructive resource-extraction activities within the protected area.

The law also provides for designated buffer zones of up to one kilometer from the park's boundaries to help protect its ecosystems from activities that could cause environmental degradation.

Despite the DENR's clarification, environmental concerns remain over mining and other extractive activities in the wider Sierra Madre mountain range.

Critics and netizens have argued that large-scale mining and logging, even outside the officially designated protected area, could still damage the mountain range's ecological functions, including its role as a natural barrier against destructive typhoons, soil erosion, and landslides.

The Sierra Madre also serves as a major source of freshwater for communities in Cagayan Valley and other parts of Luzon.