After near-brawl, Barbers links Pichay to illegal mining - ABS-CBN News

MANILA - Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers lashed out at Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. before the plenary of the Lower House weeks after a near fistfight that has resulted in an ethics complaint at the Lower House.

Barbers urged President Rodrigo Duterte and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to investigate Pichay for corporate identity theft and illegal mining which have allegedly earned the latter at least P86 million.

“Mr. Pichay’s violations are not being hidden, they are being committed openly for everyone to see, as if challenging us, yet insulting and mocking all of us. Your action, Mr. President, would be an eloquent fulfillment of your promise,” Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said in a privilege speech.

The conflict between the two congressmen erupted during a hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Amendments after lawmakers debated on whether or not to vote on revising the 1987 Constitution through a constituent assembly or a constitutional convention.

In his speech, Barbers also questioned the supposed silence of Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez on how a long-suspended Claver Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC), which was alleged to have been fraudulently and forcibly taken over by Pichay, was still given permits to mine, haul and sell nickel ores.

“Contrary to her media pronouncements and actions of suspending mining companies left and right, here comes a long suspended mining firm illegally acquired by Mr. Pichay being given a new lease in life. I never thought that the DENR possesses the power to resurrect Lazarus from the dead,” he said.

“Why did the Secretary (Gina Lopez) allow this to happen? Is it because the personality involved is a Congressman? Does the good Secretary know what is happening in her department? Or was she threatened that she won’t get the nod of the powerful Commission on Appointments if she goes against the will of the congressman?” he added. 

Barbers explained that Pichay was able to make the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Board, and a trial court believe that he is the rightful claimant and legitimate owner of a mining firm in Claver that belongs to other people.

He narrated that Mr. Pichay’s illegal activities started on November 2015 when he pretended and claimed that he was the new president of the CMDC after buying substantial shares from its previous owner, a certain Ms. Fe Ligtas. 

Known or unknown to Pichay, Ms. Fe Ligtas, from 2002 to 2006, had already sold all her shares to the Hervic Calo group and the Ireneo Cesar group. The CMDC was earlier granted by the government a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement No. 103-98-XII but its operation was ordered suspended by the DENR in 2012. 

For fraudulent reasons, after divesting all her shares, Ms. Ligtas re-registered the CMDC before the SEC under the same name. The group of Cesar went to the SEC to contest Ligtas’ move. Later, the SEC and Court of Appeals came out with a decision to revoke her re-registration. She later changed the name of her firm to Earth Power Mining and Development Corporation, and later to Hen Hao Equipment Corporation.

Barbers said Pichay, using the allegedly stolen identity of the original CMDC’s SEC registration, filed an ejectment case against the occupants of CMDC in Claver and won. Barbers said the Surigao judge who gave Pichay victory owes his position to the latter..

Barbers said Pichay then forcibly took over the management and operations of the mining firm in February 2016. The local Mamanwa tribes who have government-approved cadastral claims over the area were also driven out of the place, he claimed.

“Using the spurious local court decision derived or based from fraudulent documents, Mr. Pichay managed to fool, wittingly or unwittingly, the MGB to grant his grabbed mining site, with Ore Transport Permit (OTP) and Mineral Ore Transport Permit (MOTP) on the pretext of removing a stockpile or nickel ores earlier mined in the area for environmental reasons,” Barbers said. 

“The problem is, the low-grade nickel ore stockpile cannot be sold as there are no buyers of it. But Mr. Pichay had been able to mine, haul, ship and sell shiploads of nickel ore in the area which were worth P86 million based on documents. The low-grade nickel ore stockpile has become a perpetual justification for him to secure an OTP and MOTP from the MGB. Considering that CMDC had been suspended by the DENR for mining violations since 2012, this is a clear mockery of the mining laws."

Aside from committing corporate identity theft and mineral theft, Barbers said Pichay violated Article 6, Section 14 of the Constitution and Section 3, paragraph H of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Article 6, Section 14 of the Constitution states that “No Senator or Member of the House of Representatives, directly or indirectly, be interested financially in any contract with, or in any franchise or special privilege granted by the Government during his term of office. He shall not intervene in any matter before any office of the Government for his pecuniary benefit.” 

Section 3, paragraph H of RA 3019, on the other hand, states that lawmakers would commit graft and corruption if they “directly or indirectly having financial or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in his official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest.” 

Barbers said that the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, and the environmental group CARAGA Watch, have denounced Pichay for supposedly using his power and influence in conducting illegal mining and profiting from it.

Barbers said the other claimant/owners and stakeholders of the original CMDC mining firm, which include those from Cesar and Calo Groups and the Mamanwa tribes, have filed various criminal complaints before different courts against Pichay. 

At the conclusion of his speech, Barbers asked that his speech be referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources for the proper investigation of the illegal mining activities in Claver town, in aid of legislation.

LIES, BASELESS, SAYS PICHAY 

Pichay called Barbers' allegations as "utter lies without basis and which are motivated by partisan politics."

"The issues that Barbers has raised on the floor have already been peddled by his camp in the media, and all these we have already fully answered in the same forum. We welcome any probe so we can be cleared of his false accusations," Pichay said in a statement.

"But meanwhile, we urge Barbers to be man enough to air his charges outside the halls of Congress so he can be made answerable for his lies. He should be man enough not to hide under the cloak of parliamentary immunity.

"We also urge him to come clean on the reason for his attacks on me, namely, that he blames us for his political debacles in his province since 2007, because we supported his political opponents who won over the Barbers clan."