Small-scale mining law - sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2013/april2013/175368.pdf

see  - sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2013/april2013/175368.pdf


"x x x.


The Court has clarified that the constitutional guarantee of local
autonomy in the Constitution [Art. X, Sec. 2] refers to the administrative
autonomy of local government units or, cast in more technical language, the decentralization of government authority.35 It does not make local
governments sovereign within the State.36 Administrative autonomy may
involve devolution of powers, but subject to limitations like following
national policies or standards,37 and those provided by the Local Government Code, as the structuring of local governments and the allocation of powers, responsibilities, and resources among the different local government units and local officials have been placed by the Constitution in the hands of Congress38 under Section 3, Article X of the Constitution.

Section 3, Article X of the Constitution mandated Congress to “enact
a local government code which shall provide for a more responsive and
accountable local government structure instituted through a system of
decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and
referendum, allocate among the different local government units their
powers, responsibilities, and resources, and provide for the
qualifications, election, appointment and removal, term, salaries, powers
and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating
to the organization and operation of the local units.”

In connection with the enforcement of the small-scale mining law in
the province, Section 17 of the Local Government Code provides:

SEC. 17. Basic Services and Facilities. - (a) Local government units shall endeavor to be self-reliant and shall continue exercising the powers and discharging the duties and functions currently vested upon them. They shall also discharge the functions and responsibilities of national agencies and offices devolved to them pursuant to this Code.

Local government units shall likewise exercise such other powers and
discharge such other functions and responsibilities as are necessary appropriate, or incidental to efficient and effective provision of the
basic services and facilities enumerated herein.

(b) Such basic services and facilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
x x x x
(3) For a Province:c
 x x x x
(iii) Pursuant to national policies and subject to supervision, control and review of the DENR, enforcement of forestry laws limited to community-based forestry projects, pollution control law, small-scale mining law, and other laws on the protection of the environment; and minihydro electric projects for local purposes;39

Clearly, the Local Government Code did not fully devolve the enforcement of the small-scale mining law to the provincial government, as its enforcement is subject to the supervision, control and review of the
DENR, which is in charge, subject to law and higher authority, of carrying
out the State's constitutional mandate to control and supervise the
exploration, development, utilization of the country's natural resources.40

x x x."