If somebody will call and inform you that you won a lotto jackpot or a relative met an accident, don’t believe and don’t be fooled. That’s only a prank. Remember today is “Innocents Day.” This is a Biblical story, but other people use this day to play a joke and pull a prank to trick friends like during April’s Fool Day. Holy Innocents Day or Niños Inocentes is observed annually on Dec. 28. This day commemorates the execution of the innocent, male children in Bethlehem ordered by King Herod after he was informed by the Magi of the birth of a King of the Jews who would succeed his throne, referring to Baby Jesus. So, ayaw mo pailad.
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Barangay Captain Pedro Sepada of Biga, Toledo City, the mining site of Carmen Copper Corp. (CCC), and relatives of one of the fatalities in the landside that happened on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, that resulted in the death of four miners with six still missing, expressed their frustration and disappointment at the management of CCC for its failure to extend immediate financial help to families of the victims and residents who have been affected by the forced evacuation.
The village chief also expressed dismay against Toledo City Mayor Marjorie Perales and Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 7 Director Armando Malicse for ordering the forced evacuation without coordinating with him so he could explain to affected residents and not leave them in the dark without providing them the necessary support like food and other basic needs.
In an interview on my radio program over dySS Super Radyo, Sepada said until last Saturday no support was given by the CCC management to relatives of the fatalities and the missing miners. However, he said that most of the miners working in CCC were not directly hired by the company, but supplied by second-party contractors. Sepada once worked in the company, but resigned when he joined politics. His nephew was among those missing.
So, if the workers are not directly hired by CCC, but supplied by another agency, from whom and where can the victims’ relatives claim assistance? Sepada’s claims were supported by a relative of Dionesio Labang, one of the fatalities. Bernadith Combestra, a niece and an “adopted daughter” of Labang told GMA 7 Balitang Bisdak correspondent Fe Marie Domaboc that the family of Labang did not receive any financial assistance from the company. The interview was done on Christmas Day.
Combestra said that when they tried to communicate with the company representative (though she did not specify which company) they were shut out. Not even a single centavo was given for the coffin of the victim. If this is the case, is CCC or the agency that directly hired the victims abandoning its responsibilities and obligations to the victims? Even if Labang and other victims were not directly hired by CCC, that latter cannot abandon its responsibility to the miners because they worked for the company and the incident happened right at their own mining site. Pagka-walay kalooy.
In its website, it says: “Carmen Copper Corp. (Carmen Copper) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. (ACMDC) or Atlas Mining. Carmen Copper has an operating agreement with Atlas Mining and it had an exclusive operating right over the in situ mineral resources and ore reserves of Carmen, Lutupan and Biga mineral deposits, collectively known as Toledo Copper Mine covering 2,674 hectares. This is part of the Atlas mineral properly covering 5,218 hectares, consisting of 3,284 hectares Atlas-owned mining claims and 1,934 hectares of mining claims belonging to claim-owners who have valid operating agreement with Atlas. Carmen Copper resumes the Toledo mining operations in September 2007.”
The research and rescue operation has been downgraded to a search, recovery and retrieval operation as the missing victims were presumed to have died. But the operation was off and on because of the condition in the area as mines expert feared for another disaster. Before Christmas Day, Mayor Perales and Malicse ordered a forced evacuation of more or less 400 households or more than a thousand individuals as cracks in the ground near the site were observed and if it would continue to grow it might pose another danger.
But the evacuees were left in the dark. They were sent to a covered court in the barangay but were not provided with support like food. Sepada said he was forced to use his personal funds to support the needs of the evacuees. Because of their situation, some of the evacuees returned home despite the danger. Sepada plans to seek the assistance of Gov. Gwen Garcia. And why the Provincial Board is silent on this incident. They were so noisy about the dolomite issue in Alcoy. Dolomite was sent to Manila for the “nourishment” of Manila Bay when there were no lives involved. They even attempted to conduct an investigation. Now, in the Toledo mining incident where lives perished, they are silent. How come?
Just asking?