Monday, September 15, 2008 Indiscriminate mining blamed for landslides By Ben O. Tesiorna
A CONGRESSWOMAN from the nearby province of Davao Oriental blamed indiscriminate mining by small-scale miners as the reason behind the landslides in Maco, Compostela Valley that killed 26 people and injured 29 more.
Davao Oriental Representative Thelma Almario said that 'indiscriminate digging' for minerals caused the flashfloods and landslides.
Mountain ranges of Compostela Valley stretch up to Almario's province. Many of her constituents have been displaced for fear of more landslides.
"In my province, there's magnesite in the whole mountain stretch. Flashfloods there can cause a landslide," Almario was quoted as saying in the report.
Authorities, however, insist that the incessant rain and the softening of the soil caused the twin landslides on September 6 and 7. Environment Secretary Lito Atienza sent a team of five geologists from the Mining and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to investigate the real cause.
Almario said: "There's no need for investigation."
"It's very clear. The excavations caused it," she said.
Even though current laws say small-scale miners are supposed to be regulated by local government units (LGUs), Almario appealed to Atienza in Friday's budget briefing of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to step in. Unless these operations are controlled, landslides may happen again, Almario said.
"This is the actual situation in localities. The LGU is incapable of handling the situation. That should have been stopped by PENRO (Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office). But they are in collusion with the middlemen," Almario said.
Residents in Masara, however, said that the mining activity is located three kilometers away from their barangay and not in anyway near the landslide area.
Residents say that the landslide site is the only landslide prone area in their barangay. It was learned that since the 70's about six landslides had already happened in Masara.
Residents say it's not proper to blame mining as the cause of the tragedy, saying that it (mining) is in fact the one that's been keeping the economy of Masara and other neighboring barangays alive.
It was learned that several residents are employed by the Apex Mining company while many others resort to gold panning along the river where the gold dusts are carried downstream from the mining operation on top of the mountains.
