10 deaths last year didn't deter miners

MANILA, Philippines - Small-scale mining activities in Pantukan town in Compostela Valley have been continuing even after a landslide that left at least 10 people dead in Barangay Kingking on Good Friday last year.

Mining companies continue to operate particularly in disaster-prone areas that include Barangay Napnapan where 25 people were reported killed in another landslide yesterday morning, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.

The DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said that apart from these miners who were issued permits, there also exist some 200 illegal small-scale miners in Napnapan.

“The Compostela Valley provincial government has issued an ordinance that allowed small-scale miners to continue to operate. Under this ordinance, these miners are covered by what they refer to as ‘Minahang Bayan’ wherein only cooperatives or groups are allowed to apply and not individuals,” MGB Director Leo Jasareno said in a news briefing yesterday.

The ordinance is said to have taken effect in the third quarter of last year.

Jasareno described the area, particularly Purok Diat 1, Diat 2 and Diat 3 in Barangay Napnapan, to have rugged topography and steep slopes.

“When we conducted inspection in the area, we observed tension cracks and weathered rocks which geologists say are somehow softened by the constant rains and sun exposure,” he said.

He added that because of these mining activities, liquid wastes that are produced are just being dumped on the slopes.

Jasareno said that last November, they wrote the barangay captain of Napnapan and provided the latter information that his community is prone to landslides and that the lives of the residents are endangered.

Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje asked the same officials to cease from further issuing small-scale mining (SSM) permits as the DENR no longer issues environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for SSM.

“It’s the local government that decides to continue mining activities in their respective areas. On the part of the DENR, we don’t issue (ECC) to small-scale miners anymore,” Paje said.

Paje also supported Jasareno’s statement that when they visited the area last year, they saw that it was already an unsafe place as they found cracks along the mountain ridges. He added that they advised concerned officials to immediately relocate the residents.

“Based on geohazard maps, it has been proven scientifically that the area is unstable,” he said.

At the same time, he reiterated his appeal to all local government officials to revisit the geohazard maps distributed by the agency and institute mitigating measures to shield communities from danger.

“The area continues to act as a magnet to as many as 200,000 individuals during a gold rush,” Paje said, adding that they had then warned the LGU that it would only be a matter of time before the mountainside would collapse.

He added that the local government units should also exercise political will so that the affected residents can be immediately relocated.

The DENR chief said that he has already dispatched a team of geologists to assess the area for possible dangers posed on rescuers, warning them of the possibility of further landslides due to the condition of the soil as well as holes caused by small-scale mining.

Mining vultures

Meanwhile, a group of military officials yesterday said mining vultures in government and private sectors are to be blamed for yesterday’s landslide in Pantukan, Compostela Valley.

“It’s wild, wild west out there. More floods and landslides are coming,” said the group that requested not to be named.

Formerly assigned as ground military commanders in the area, they said that aside from local executives, government cronies from the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos to the present administration, military and police personnel, DENR personnel as well as New People’s Army rebels have been hugely benefiting from continuing illegal mining operations not only in Pantukan but also in Monkayo town, also in Compopstela Valley.

They said this explains why danger warnings issued by the DENR’s MGB have been repeatedly ignored by small-scale miners who continue to flock to the area because they have the blessings of powerful patrons.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, for the longest time, has maintained a force in Compostela Valley due to the presence of communist rebels in the area. - With Jaime Laude