Monday, October 13, 2008 2 party-list lawmakers want House probe on Masara By Ben O. Tesiorna
TWO party-list representatives have sought a House investigation into the landslide in Barangay Masara in Maco, Compostela Valley with focus on "the apparent failure of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to effectively implement environmental laws and prevent irresponsible mining operations in Maco."
The inquiry was filed as House Resolution 797 of Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño.
Ocampo and Casiño lamented that despite the tragedy and clear signs that Maco, Compostela Valley is a geohazard and landslide-prone area, the DENR is not keen on halting large and small-scale mining operations in the area.
The lawmakers cited a report of environment group Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao Region (SMR) stating that the operations of Apex Mining Company and Crew Gold Corporation have contributed to the area's high-risk geohazard nature.
Apex started its mining operations in the village in the 1980s while international gold mining company Crew Gold Corporation, which has headquarters in Weybridge, United Kingdom, acquired the Masara gold mine in 2005, according to Panalipdan-SMR.
Crew Minerals' drillings have now gone as deep as 32,000 meters while the underground development of the Apex property continues with portals and ramp systems. Crew Minerals has a target production of 85,000 to 180,000 ounces of gold and 500,000 to 600,000 ounces of silver at the end of 2008, according to Panalipdan-SMR.
The group said the DENR's relentless issuances of mining permits to foreign mining companies show the government's political incapacity to impose environmental safeguards and assert its regulatory function in the high-risk mining industry that endangers the lives of the local people in geohazard areas and mining tenements as well as the environment.
According to Panalipdan-SMR, DENR technical experts declared Masara a high risk zone and recommended that it be evacuated as early as 2006. Likewise, it said the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) already assessed the area, declared it a high-risk zone, and recommended the evacuation of residents from that area.
In 2007, SMR said 10 people died in a rain-triggered landslide, prompting the MGB to reiterate its urgent recommendation that the area be immediately vacated.
"Compostela Valley is also an environmentally-critical province and the nonchalance of the DENR on the continued presence of unregulated small scale mining operations and the reported large scale mining activities in the area will further deplete whatever finite resources are left and permanently damage the biodiversity and livelihood of the local people," the lawmakers said in their resolution.
MGB Geosciences division chief Diana Velasco however said that based on her professional opinion, the Masara landslides were not at all related to mining activities. She said the landslide was a natural occurrence brought about by the presence of three local fault lines and the heavy rain that triggered the slide.
Velasco said the presence of old landslides in the same area where the September 7 and 8 landslides occurred was also a factor.
The Masara landslides last September 7 and 8 killed 30 residents and displaced 5,000 more.
