Government to take over mining at Diwalwal

The government is poised to take over the mining operations at Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo, Compostela Valley after the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported rising tension at the gold-rush site.

PNP chief Director Hermogenes Ebdane told Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez in a briefing yesterday morning that violence at Mt. Diwalwal is escalating and that firearms and explosives laws should be strictly enforced there.

Alvarez flew yesterday to Southern Mindanao immediately after the briefing at Manila Hotel and ordered a stop to mining and mineral processing operations at Mt. Diwalwal. The order will be effective after appropriate takeover plans are finalized.

Alvarez invoked Section 4 of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 which states that mineral resources are owned by the state and their exploration, development, utilization and processing would be under the state’s control.

The government is set to take control of a total of 8,829 hectares of active mining and mineral reservation area, including part of the timber license agreement of Picop Resources Inc.

"Lives are being lost and the credibility of the government to look after the welfare of the small people is at stake," Alvarez said.

Last Saturday, some 2,500 small-scale miners barricaded the Tagmanok Bridge in Mawab, also in Compostela Valley, demanding an investigation into several shooting incidents in the past several weeks.

The protesters also demanded a thorough and impartial probe on the death of a miner due to suffocation from the smoke of cyanide-laced burning tires.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Roy Cimatu told reporters in General Santos City that the protesters, led by one Boy Marquez, have voluntarily lifted their barricades following negotiations with the police and the military.

"But our law enforcers there are ready to forcibly break their barricades if they would not agree to peacefully give up," he said. — With John Paul Jubelag