TWO towns in Benguet sit on danger zones as ground subsidence stoke perpetual fear among residents.
Despite the dangers, municipalities of Mankayan and Itogon still host mining activities which bring development, livelihood, services, and economy.
Sinking barangays of Colalo and Poblacion in Mankayan
Sinking in Municipality of Mankayan was first observed in 1972, almost four decades after Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation [LCMC] started operations in 1936.
Today, sinking has crept into the villages of Colalo and Poblacion pushing Mankayan Mayor Materno Luspian to say he wants to have an independent probe to settle once and for all the cause and solution for perennial danger his town faces.
“When it was not a mining site, there was no sinking, why only now? What is the impact of mining underground to the surface, to the environment?”
Luspian said science tells them mining cannot be blamed for sinking but he cannot help but wonder, saying an explanation as well as a clear picture of how years of mining has affected the underground and the environment is needed.
Studies started in 1975 when a team from the then, Bureau of Mines, Commission on Volcanology and Bureau of Public Works investigated ground movement initially, at the Barangay Poblacion area.
The team found cracks along concrete pavements, house floors and walls, displacement of posts, while buildings and structures were found to be below standard and erected over filled and un-retained ground foundation.
Results showed no conclusive evidence that underground work at the mines caused the instabilities but instead directly related ground movement to amount of rainfall, topography, highly fractured and altered overlying rocks as well as disturbance of slope by man and nature.
Government studies continued for three decades which found the town naturally prone to slope movement due to its geology.
Luspian is now resigned to knocking on the conscience of LCMC to take action on sites which continue to sink.
“Whether the sinking is caused by mining, the social responsibility of the mining company must come in to take care of its host barangay,” Luspian added. “That is what we are asking the company, what your social responsibility is? You have lived and gotten the wealth of the area, what about the surface that was disturbed? Let their conscience work.”
On July 1999, teachers at the local public school saw cracks on the floor and noticed doors were hard to open prompting them to ask for help.
Village officials with the Parents and Teachers and Community Association had an emergency meeting and inspection which led to the discovery of more cracks on the ground, telltale signs the ground was slowly sinking, classes were quickly suspended to prevent students from entering in fear of ground collapse.
Days later, school grounds including five residential houses sank, with Pablo Gomez, school employee perishing as he guarded the Colalo elementary grounds, his remains were never found.
Itogon Sinkhole
Benguet Corporation Incorporated (BCI) started in Itogon at 1903 both with open pit and underground operations.
For the next 100 years, BCI extracted ores of gold, nickel and silver, reigning as pioneer mine in the province and employing thousands.
In the late 90’s operations ended in the underground signaling the BCI management to allow investors to acquire concessions to operate their abandoned tunnels, opening the door to Small Scale Mining [SSM].
On October 2015 a sinkhole measuring around 150 meters swallowed six houses during the onslaught of typhoon Lando at Sitio Kamangaan in Barangay Virac.
In the area, at least 500 more houses were identified to be at risk of being swallowed by the sinkhole forcing a probe by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
In the same year, the National Institute of Geological Sciences of the University of the Philippines studied Virac incident, Carlo Arcilla and engineer Gabriel Pamintuan Jr. in the report said subsidence was caused by a pipe out that started at the old drain tunnel of BCI with heavy rain triggering collapse.
The UP findings aligned with the MGB that showed abnormally high rainfall brought about by typhoon Lando recording 775.4mm on a single day equivalent to one month of rain.
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan insists BCI must admit responsibility for the Virac sinkhole and stay true to a promise of rehabilitation as he fears other areas where they have tunnels are also at risk.
“Gawin sana lahat ng Benguet Corp ang kanilang obligasyon. Hindi lang sa pagtulong sa mga biktima at relocatees pero ang obligasyon nila bilang isang mining company tulad ng pagsasa-ayos ng kanilang mga tunnel para maiwasan ang pagguho o sink hole.” (They should do their obligation, not only to the victims of the sinkhole and providing relocation, but also to fix their tunnels to avoid more erosion and sinkholes),” he said.
What mining gives
By law, the extractive industries are required to establish social and environmental funds for the development of host communities, and for the protection and enhancement of impacted areas through the Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) and the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program (EPEP) as well as promoting goodwill to the community through discretionary social expenditures in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility activities.
The Mining Act of 1995 mandates companies to shell out funds for EPEP and SDMP while the Corporate Social Responsibility Act of 2011 assures host communities will be extended assistance.
CSR-related activities include charitable programs and projects; scientific research; youth and sports development; cultural and educational promotion; services to veterans and senior citizens; social welfare; environmental sustainability; health development; disaster relief assistance and employee and employer related CSR activities while the SDMP and EPEP projects focus on environmental needs and high impact community projects.
For Mankayan, the SDMP for the year 2016 has been noted to be P25M as declared by LCMC while for Itogon, BC turned over P866,700,398 to community SDMP projects.
The mining industry in the Cordillera employs close to 17,000 workers, with over 7,000 in large-scale mines while the majority of 20,000 in small scale mines.
There are three major mines in the region, mainly in the Benguet province with BCI, LCMC and Philex Mining Corporation posing as the biggest and the most viable for employment.
For Benguet, a direct contribution to employment is seen in BCI’s regular employees and contractor miners of over 3,000, LCMC has over 2,000 employees for surface and underground while Philex also has over 2,000.
Danger zones vs relocation sites
In Itogon, Micaheal Sibayan, chairman of the Virac, Kamanggan Residents Association said homeowners are always on watch, especially when the rainy season begins in fear of another collapse.
Sibayan admitted people do not want to move out from the danger zone “Kahit na ideneklara na itong danger zone at kahit nakikita naming yong mga uka ng lupa wala kaming maggawa kundi manirahan parin dito kasi wala kaming lilipatan (Even if it is declared a danger zone, we cannot do anything but stay here because we have nowhere else to go to),” Sibayan said.
BCI did not admit responsibility for the sinkhole but offered remedial measures and a relocation site at their old timber yard, former dumping grounds of the mining firm.
The sinkhole created a five-hectare danger zone but resettlement is unsure as unsettled issues between land claimants and the BCI still ensue.
Those rendered homeless have since been renting homes while others who are employees of BCI were given temporary resettlement.
In Mankayan, Barangay officials of Colalo recommends the sunk area to be forested in a bid to create soil support and prevent another washout during the rainy season.
Albert Diego, a relocated resident, said 14 hectares has been declared as a danger zone, the space is now forested and is tightly guarded by LCMC, and no one is allowed to enter.
All residents directly affected were given relocation but most of them choose not to access site reasoning the area is far from the town center and had no roads.
The Colalo Elementary School has since been relocated at Upper Colalo, the village center, it has 15 rooms including the newly constructed building.
LCMC donated materials for the construction of a temporary school for the community and a continued support from the company is also being given. The local government provided relocation site at Sitio Busan and Kapinyaan, also in Colalo.
Diego said a new sinking site has been confirmed by residents in sitio Liskabot, in Colalo which started after typhoon Lawin in 2016.
As answers for the Mankayan sinking and Itogon sinkhole persist, life stands still for the two highland towns in the Cordillera.
This story was funded under the “Covering Extractive Industries: Digging Out The Stories That Matter” Fellowship Program of the Philippine Press Institute in partnership with the Philippine Extractive Industries and Transparency Initiative.