New Reviewers

I promise to upload more reviewers very soon.

I am working on some new materials.

Basta, all throughout next year, pramis.

Medyo rusty na din geol info so great review din for me.

Mine Law (POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL INFO)

MGB to National Museum of the Philippines

Guano Permits in Caves
Since 2012

Treasure Hunting Permits
Since early 2004

Legal Basis: RA 10066 National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009


_-----------------------------------------------------------------------------_


Secretary Cimatu's Reign
(Charot)

Golden Age for the Enforcement of Mining and Environmental Laws

- Deployment of MGB and EMB Technical Personnel to the PENRO and CENRO Offices (these are DENR field offices usually located in the centro of a municipality or a province)

Serving as the focal persons of the MGB in the implementation of mining laws, regulations and priority projects, the one hundred nineteen (119) embedded personnel (see article)

Top Ten Priority Projects

1. Clear Air
2. Clean Water
3. Solid Waste Management
4. Geohazard, Groundwater Assessment and Responsible Mining
5. Forest and Watershed Management (ENGP or Enhanced National Greening Program)
6. Intensified Forest Protection and Anti-illegal Logging
7. Enhanced Biodiversity Conservation
8. Scaling up of Coastal and Marine Ecosystem
9. Improved Land Administration and Management
10. Manila Bay Clean-up

SURFACE MINING IS STILL BANNED!!!!!!!!!!

Even after the demised of Ms. Gina Lopez, the impact of her uninformed decisions still caused a lot of ruckus, and not to mention UNEMPLOYMENT, to the mining industry. Maybe, just maybe, with the careful planning and execution of Sec. Cimatu, he would finally be able to convince the President that it's okay to have Surface Mining back.

2018 and 2019 DENR Administrative Order
Mining Related

1. Establishment of the Centralized Management of DENR, MGB and EMB
Creation of the Regional Executive Director (RED) of DENR

Legal Basis: DAO 2018-18

2. New Guidelines on the Evaluation of Three Year Work Program
This is not an IRR of RA 7942 but a DIRECTIVE IN CONSONANCE TO THE PRESIDENT'S DESIRE FOR A STRICT MONITORING OF MINING OPERATION. Char.

Legal Basis: DAO 2018-20

3. Additional Envi Guidelines for OPERATION SURFACE METALLIC MINES (for the mines before the Surface Mining Ban)

- 20m buffer zone INWARD from the Mining Tenement Boundary and OUTWARD from the edges of the normal high waterline of rivers and streams WITHIN the Mining Tenement Area.
- Establishment of Maximum Disturbed Areas FOR NICKEL MINES
- Performance Bond of P 5 MILLION PESOS ANNUALLY

Legal Basis: DAO 2018-19

4. IRR of the NIPAS LAW!
You should really check this out.

Legal Basis: DAO 2019-05

Stories from the Field 1

I don't usually have stories to tell when I do field works because my fields usually revolved around smirking illegal operators, snobby local officials and a feisty and hot-headed version of myself. I hate narrating my escapades because some of it really pissed me off. But one field activity stand out from the rest. This was the time when I first visited an almost hard to reached barangay in Upper Calauag.

So I was conducting a site inspection on Quezon Canal if it's suitable for dredging. I don't want to give a lot of information about this one but I am really confused about the involvement of the singer who wanted a seat on the Senate and the unbecoming interest of that white mansion in Pasig River with this project. Anyway, more of that later (if I ever found out why they are so interested with the that man-made canal).

Anyway, the story I wanted to share was told when we were having lunch with the local officials in the area. They shared the stories of a certain "Katang", "Ailyn" and "Winnie". Katang was a local legend in that area because he is sort of having a "voluntary exile". Ailyn is a local who is considered to be mad and Winnie was remembered as the product of a failing system of the Social Welfare.

Katang: The Lone Man in an Island

He is not a Biog, a local term for the Indigenous People on this area, he is just like that. No one really knows if he wanted a solitary lifestyle. He and his family are now residing on an island unprotected by mangroves and is very susceptible to flooding due to the tides. They are fishmongers. He and his multitudes of male children fish during the end of the day. The father just stayed in the banca while his unclothed little children swam dangerously with the nets, doing the nasty bit for their father.

What makes this story interesting? They remembered a girl fathered by Katang. She was once a normal kid with pretty black hair who walked with her mother while they sell the fishes her siblings caught. She was last seen half-witted and very confused. Then she just disappeared.

Apparently, she was raped by her father, thrown in the ocean while being tied with a huge rock.

Ailyn: The Naked Lady

She was the fright of the little, quiet town. She walks around naked most of the time. No relative of her seems to care. When she sees man on the street, she would lash out and attack them. Apparently, she hated men.

What makes this story interesting? She is now in her second trimester. Who the father was is a mystery no one really knows. Her relatives, an ageing mother and siblings, don't really care about her. Her previous husband she had left for another moved away from the town a long time ago. She is all alone, broken and no real care in the world with a child coming on the way. What she would do to the poor thing, no one really knows.

Winnie: The Slave

She was once a normal girl from a neighboring town. No one really knows how she got from there to here or who she has back then in town. No one knows if she's married or not. Then she was seen walking around, out of her mind. Many people helped her. She even has bouts of normalcy sometimes. But she always come back to the center, broken and mad. Her sad life ended when she was hit by a vehicle on one of her bouts of madness.

What makes this story interesting? She has a husband. The guy only cared about her when he was trying to claim some money from the incident. A sister also tried to lay claim and fight for the money. She was also supposedly raped time and time again that's why the bouts of madness occurred back then.

FINDING WORK: A GEOLOGIST SAGA

To all the new graduates and new board passers, I pray that the Lord will bless you with a joyful heart full of patience. (GEOLOGIST, icri)

Since graduating last 2016, I've been on a constant roll of looking for a job suitable for my profession. I've written tons and tons of cover letters, filled up dozens of Personal Data Sheet (PDS) and Work Experience Sheet (WES) and printed out an amount of documents that is probably equating to at least 10 trees (not joking).

To be honest, I've always targeted the public sector. I think that a job in the government works perfectly for me because of my noble dream of serving the general populace. But time and time again, I am being punch in the face by the reality of our "PADRINO SYSTEM" and the "IT'S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW BUT WHO YOU KNOW" adage. My heart is always breaking after every interview because even though I know I have the professional experience and the number of training hours needed in a plantilla position, the other guy in the room with no experience but have the necessary "recommendation letter from that official" will surely get the job. I'm tired of charging everything to experience and I've worked really hard to get where I am right now and I think it's unfair that others have it easy.

I initially came from the private sector because I am an "illegal" scholar of this company (read SDMP terms on RA 7942 and its IRR on who you should get as a scholar for DMTG). So I've worked there since 2014 since I was an undergraduate geology student up until I got my license on 2017. It's an eye-opening experience and a terrible one, if I might add. I'm not being ungrateful or anything but sometimes, the wrong company will purge the remaining hope in you that there could be change in this country and the system. I've learned a lot from them but it's not working out for me and I am almost always sick due to stress when I was working there. After I got my license, I know that I can finally have the change I wanted.

Sadly for me, 2018 was the reaping year (I dunno if this is the term) of Gina Lopez's reign as the Secretary of DENR. The mining industry is at its lowest. There is no hiring on private sectors (although not really my target) for entry level geologist (although not really entry level). It's a good thing that I've taken my on-the-job training at one of the regional offices of Mines and Geosciences Bureau and I got in on the pilot Embedded Program of Secretary Roy Cimatu.

I was accepted and I hoped for the best. Sadly, just like what the Thanos meme said, "Reality is often disappointing". (I'm sorry if I don't know if this was really mentioned in the End Game. I did not watch that because I refused to be a part of the bandwagon fans because I'm not.) Here I am, sitting in my office desk writing this, instead of actually writing my two pending reports. I AM AT MY WIT'S ENDS. Administrative and enforcement problems are always present. I am underappreciated (not really a problem but I just mentioned this for those who care for that kind of thing at work), paid late almost all the time(I dunno why but HR and Finance always say that they are busy to process our DTR. So what then? We don't eat or pay our bills then because you guys are busy?) and most importantly, I am a contractual with no employer-employee relationship. I am one of those so called "consultant" nowadays because the government decided to eradicate the "contractualization" TERM instead of the culture. Anyway... 

Being a geologist in this country sucks if you graduated and got your license on or after the term of Gina Lopez. I tell you, it's almost a worthless profession irl. I dunno why. I ALSO SUGGEST TO GET YOUR PADRINO IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A JOB IMMEDIATELY. Man, I admired that one new grad who knows a USec and was shortlisted for a high paying position with us even though he has no experience or training hours.

AJA!

M. I. A. and My Work in DENR

Hi, guys!

I know I've been MIA for quite some time now and I know that no one really cares. Hehe. But still, this is my blog and I'm gonna share things here.

I've been investigating a lot of stuff lately with regards to illegal mining activities and I'm weird out time and time again. You know, with all the politics around and the upcoming election, you know complaints are either related to a political candidates or political candidates making waves in order to endorsed their name to the public.

I'm rambling cause people are noisy here in the office.