ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The provincial government of Zamboanga del Sur wants damages from “big-time” illegal miners for destroying the environment and abusing the law and tribal rights in the mineral-rich town of Bayog.
“They had been lording it over (Sitio) Balabag (in Bayog town) for years, denying the government millions in taxes, enriching themselves in the process, and depriving their laborers of their right to government-mandated salaries and benefits,” Gov. Antonio Cerilles said in a statement.
Early this week, an inter-agency task force led by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) dismantled the structures of more than 40 illegal mining groups in Sitio Balabag.
Cerilles expressed alarm that the water supply that sustains agriculture and the fishing industry has been contaminated.
Cerilles said the illegal mining operators must rehabilitate the area destroyed by years of illegal and improper methods of mineral extraction.
“I think the cost of the rehabilitation should neither come from the government nor from anybody else. It should be them,” he said.
The task force, composed of the provincial government, MGB, Environmental Management Bureau, the local police, National Bureau of Investigation, the Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion, and the Bayog municipal government – is implementing the MGB’s cease-and-desist order in Sitio Balabag, Barangay Depore in Bayog town.
The task force has so far dismantled about 60 percent of the mining equipment, including rod mills, carbon-in pulp plants and generating sets, without any resistance in Balabag.
Other small-scale mining operators have requested to voluntarily dismantle their facilities, but the task force asked them to turn over their equipment to the authorities for proper inventory, said Anthony Padayhag, Cerilles’ executive assistant.
“The area’s soil and water ecosystem must be inspected while reforestation should take place to replenish the logged-out forests of the Balabag hills,” Padayhag said.