Monday, October 06, 2008 Miners' groups to perform cleansing ritual By Jane Cadalig
AN INDIGENOUS cleansing rite will be performed among miners' groups in Itogon, Benguet to avoid the repeat of a tragedy as they go about their livelihood.
Pocket miner Antonio Chog-ap said miners who helped in the search, rescue, and retrieval operations for their 16 trapped colleagues in the Antamok Gold Field Mines were advised to perform the native cleansing ritual called daw-es.
Those who helped, saw, and held the retrieved bodies must join the ritual to be spared from any form of tragedy and to be blessed for extending their help during the operations, Chog-ap said.
"We will ask the gods so the tragedy would not be repeated. We would also ask miners be spared from contracting any disease," he added.
The ritual would be performed at the 430 portal of the mines, which was used as the main entrance and exit during the rescue and retrieval operations.
Even the survivors were advised to perform the daw-es once they go back to their respective homes.
Chog-ap, also officer of the Spanish Empire Pocket Miners Association (Sepma), was among the elders who led a ritual on the third day of the rescue and retrieval operations.
Sepma is one of the 65 small-scale miners associations in Benguet.
The purpose of the first ritual, he said, was to ask God's help for the rescuers in finding the trapped miners.
"When we performed the ritual, rescuers were able to recover bodies and rescued miners the succeeding days. It really helped hasten the rescue operations," he said.
Engineer Isabelo Velez Jr., general manager of the Gold Operations of the Benguet Corporation, said the firm is still open to negotiations between the small-scale miners with regard to the contract mining agreement.
In the meantime though, Velez said the mining firm is focused on clearing the underground mine operations to allow the company to assess the areas where the miners could work.
The contract expired in June and was not renewed because the negotiations for the sharing scheme bogged down.
Under the contract Benguet Corporation entered with the small-scale miners, particularly the Sepma, operations would only be allowed from the level 400 and above of the Antamok underground. Mining below this level is banned.
Some of the trapped small-scale miners were found at level 700, which is the drainage tunnel and is not fit for mining operations, Velez said.
Miners claimed that under the memorandum of agreement, the company is responsible in the operations of the small-scale miners to ensure nobody would go below level 400.
As to who is responsible for the incident, Velez said finger pointing is not practical at present. "At this point, we could not throw the blame at each other."
Mines and Geosciences Bureau-Cordillera Director Neoman dela Cruz, for his part, said mining companies should police their ranks.
