The environment and natural resources department made public letters sent to mines responsible for waste material at two disused mines firms as the country braced for higher than expected rainfall levels from the La Nina phenomenon.

It warned Canada's Placer Dome and its former Filipino affiliate, Marcopper Mining Corp, that the infrastructure at a siltation dam and a pit tunnel at an abandoned copper mine on the island of Marinduque posed "imminent danger to life and property."

A collapsed spillway for a tailings dam of the Dizon Copper-Silver Mines Inc and Benguet Corp near San Marcelino town northwest of Manila posed "potential danger to the environment and to life and property," it added.

The firms were ordered to repair the structures within 15 days.

The Philippines, which is actively courting mining investments, is bracing for a wetter than usual 2006 due to the cyclical La Nina, a weather phenomenon that affects the sea-surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

When the surface temperatures falls below normal, they typically bring above-average rainfall to the Philippines as well as Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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