BY DAVE SUAN ALBARADO
GARCIA HERNANDEZ – Limestone mining operations in Garcia Hernandez town, Bohol will continue for another 25 years after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) renewed the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) covering the operations of Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC), provincial officials said.
Bohol Board Member Nathaniel Binlod disclosed the renewal during a regular session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, saying the company’s initial 25-year mining agreement had recently expired and was subsequently renewed by the national government.
Binlod, who chairs the provincial board’s Committee on Ways and Means, said provincial officials learned during their inquiry that endorsements from provincial, municipal and barangay governments are no longer required when existing mining agreements are renewed.
Under current regulations, local government endorsements are generally required only for new mining applications, while renewals are processed directly through national agencies.
The arrangement has raised issues among provincial officials who argue that Boholanos directly affected by mining activities should have a greater role in decisions regarding the continuation of large-scale extraction projects.
“The barangay, municipality and province are the first to experience the consequences if incidents or environmental problems occur,” Binlod said during deliberations.
Provincial officials had hoped to conduct a comprehensive review of the mine’s long-term impacts before any renewal was granted, but the permit renewal process had already been completed at the national level, he said.
The issue has renewed debate over one of Bohol’s longest-running extractive industries.
ALARMED
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bohol raised alarm over the automatic renewal of a 25-year limestone mining franchise in Garcia-Hernandez town, saying the national government bypassed LGU officials in approving the deal — and that the municipality hosting the mine have little to show for half a century of industrial extraction.
Binlod disclosed at a regular session of the provincial board that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had granted Bohol Limestone Corporation another 25-year Mineral Production Sharing Agreement, or MPSA, for the operations of the Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC) in Garcia Hernandez — without requiring any endorsement from the provincial government, the municipality, or the barangay.
“The barangay, local government and province should have the right to give endorsement or prohibit the continuation of operation of a mine, especially since they are the first to be affected if there are incidents or disasters that could be the result of mining activities,” Binlod said.
He said the Sangguniang Panlalawigan had sought to thoroughly examine the mine’s condition and its effects before allowing it to continue operations, but the national renewal process had already been completed before local authorities could intervene.
Under current rules, endorsement from a local government is required only when a new applicant seeks a permit — not for the renewal of an existing one.
The Committee on Environment of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan said it would continue its own separate investigation into the mine’s impacts and the concerns of surrounding communities.
MORE THAN 50 YEARS
The limestone operation in Garcia Hernandez predates the province’s awareness of its environmental costs by decades.
Commercial mining operations in the area began in February 1977, initially conducted under Consuelo Limestone Corporation for 25 years before the mining rights were transferred to what became Bohol Limestone Corporation around 1999.
Philippine Mining Service Corporation, a subsidiary of Japanese steelmakers JFE Mineral Company and JFE Steel Corporation, acquired the limestone plant in Garcia Hernandez from Philippine Sinter Corporation on April 1, 2001.
The PMSC property consists of ten mining claims in Garcia Hernandez, and the company estimates approximately 400 million tons of limestone mineral reserve in the area — a deposit the company describes as guaranteeing a consistent, stable supply for the long term.
The plant has been operating for five decades or more, quarrying limestone for cement production, plastic production, water treatment, and purification.
Garcia Hernandez — popularly known today as “Limestone Country” — holds the only limestone plant in the province of Bohol, supplying rising demand for limestone ore used in sintering both domestically and for export.
The Land Movement
The renewed controversy over the mine was partly triggered by a land movement incident in Barangay Candanas, which residents and local officials initially suspected was connected to blasting activities at the mine.
Engineers from the company, however, denied any direct connection.
Binlod cited the incident as precisely the kind of community-level risk that justifies requiring local endorsement for mining renewals.
Environmental Costs: What 50 Years of Quarrying Leaves Behind
The environmental damage from long-running limestone mining operations is well-documented in scientific literature — and Bohol itself has formally acknowledged the problem in its development planning documents.
The Bohol Provincial Planning and Development Office has identified limestone quarrying as among the major mining activities causing adverse environmental impacts in the province, including increased soil erosion, water pollution, destruction of heritage areas and unique landscapes, reduction of biological diversity, and deterioration of coastal fisheries.
At the site level, the science is unambiguous.
Open-pit limestone quarrying in karst landscapes — the geological formation characteristic of Bohol — substantially alters groundwater flow and direction.
Removal of soil cover allows direct pollutant access into the underlying aquifer, while the elimination of the epikarst zone destroys an important groundwater storage system.
Dust from quarrying can enter conduits and be transported into the groundwater system.
Quarrying can also cause subsidence when the weight of overlying land exceeds what the remaining limestone can support, potentially causing collapse that damages structures and endangers people. Karst collapse can form sinkholes that further redirect surface water into underground systems.
The land movement at Candanas — whatever its ultimate cause — is consistent with the geological instability associated with decades of blasting and extraction in karst terrain.
Beyond the subsurface, the major environmental consequences of quarrying include the devastation of vegetation, soil erosion, river siltation, dust pollution, and landslide risk.
Respiratory disease from silica dust exposure is a recognized occupational and community health hazard in limestone quarry zones, though longitudinal health data for Garcia Hernandez communities has not been made publicly available.
WHO BENEFITS?
The most politically charged dimension of the Garcia Hernandez mining question is fiscal.
Despite hosting one of the largest limestone operations in the Asia-Pacific for nearly 50 years, the municipality ranks as a fourth-class income municipality — with a poverty incidence of 22.21 percent as of 2021 and total revenue of only P172.4 million pesos in 2022.
Roads in the municipality’s own development documents describe farm-to-market routes in need of improvement and a water supply system requiring major repair.
The reason is structural.
Under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and the MPSA framework, the national government grants the contractor exclusive mining rights while sharing in gross output — with the contractor providing the financing, technology, management, and personnel.
Taxes flow primarily to the national treasury.
Under the Local Government Code of 1991, host LGUs were entitled to a 40 percent share in the national government’s collections from the utilization and development of national wealth within their territorial jurisdiction — but the practical release of those funds was historically unreliable, subject to national budget processes, and rarely proportional to actual extraction volumes at the local level.
The situation may improve under recently enacted legislation.
Republic Act 12253, the Enhanced Fiscal Regime for Large-Scale Metallic Mining Act signed in September 2025, retains the 40 percent LGU share of gross national collections from mining-related excise taxes, royalties, and other charges derived from operations within their jurisdiction, but introduces a mandate for direct and immediate release to LGUs — without further action or holdback by the national government.
However, the new law specifies that MPSAs executed before its effectivity will continue to be governed by their existing terms, unless those agreements provide for automatic incorporation of future laws — meaning BLC’s newly renewed 25-year MPSA may not automatically benefit from the improved fiscal provisions.
Meanwhile, the local business tax that LGUs may impose on mining contractors is capped at 0.5 percent of gross output — a ceiling that critics argue is far too low to compensate communities for the environmental degradation and infrastructure burden imposed by large-scale mining.
A Policy Gap That Benefits No One
Binlod’s call to reform the national policy on mining permit renewals reflects a tension in Philippine resource governance: that the communities bearing the environmental and social costs of extraction hold the least power over whether extraction continues.
The DENR’s current framework treats MPSA renewal as an administrative matter between the contractor and the national government. Local governments — which manage the roads damaged by ore hauling trucks, absorb the public health costs of dust exposure, and respond first to blasting-related incidents — have no formal veto and no required consultation role in renewal proceedings.
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s Committee on Environment said it would press its investigation regardless.
The outcome may determine whether Garcia Hernandez, after five decades of being called “Limestone Country,” can finally demand something more from the industry that defines it.