Work program for Mankayan sinking area ordered

Friday, June 17, 2011

MINES and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Director Orlando Pineda Sr. has ordered a work program for the sinking area in Mankayan town.

Pineda said the sinking should be addressed before the rainy season sets in to avoid accidents.

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"We have to sandbag the area," he said.

Pineda said the sinking portion of the mining town needs to be addressed to avoid more erosion comes the rainy season, adding a series of dams have to be built to ensure the safety of residents.

MGB studies show that ground instabilities within the Poblacion, Mankayan area was first observed in the 1970s and the area is very prone to mass movements due to physical and geological factors. The area is within a fault zone.

Pineda said there is no study to link the sinking to mining, and in the absence of an independent study to pinpoint the culprit, "all there is left to do is work to avoid more accidents."

"We cannot finger point now. We have to start helping one another," he said.

Pineda has requested Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation (LCMC) to donate 1,000 sandbags a year. "We have asked them to help now."

The MGB has no known reports of a town likened to the Mankayan area where sinking has been of this magnitude. The area is a mining town, where LCMC has been conducting drillings and underground blasting for decades.

In 2009, over 3,000 residents and two school buildings from the sunken Poblacion were affected by the sinking of the ground. It has saddled and worried the local government since.

Studies show that P93 million is needed to relocate residents and structures from the sunken areas to safer grounds.

Pineda said a meeting and an ocular inspection will begin this week in the area to assess what else is needed to arrest the erosion problem.