Zambo Sur mountain turning into graveyard, toxic land

[GLT]

Zambo Sur mountain turning into graveyard, toxic land

Wednesday, 22 February 2012 10:27

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR – Philippine authorities have expressed alarm over
the unabated illegal gold mining activities in the mountain of Balabag
in the town of Bayog in the Western Mindanao province of Zamboanga del
Sur.

Authorities said the rampant use of cyanide and mercury are
threatening the environment and the safety and health of villagers
around the mountain. There have been many cases of deaths related to
illegal mining over the years - from landslides to blasting of tunnels
– by small scale miners.

The illegal activities continue to pose grave dangers and the
pollution from hazardous chemicals such as cyanide, mercury and nitric
acid are now threatening not only the water and food sources in
Balabag, but the safety of humans and animals as well.

The toxic chemicals are being used by small-scale miners to extract
gold from rocks and earth dug from tunnels that now dotted the
mountain like bee hives.
Tons and tons of cyanide, mercury and nitric acid are dumped in
Balabag over the past decades by illegal miners whose operations are
being run by local financiers.

*‘War Zone’
Blasting in Balabag is also rampant, especially during night time
where illegal miners dig tunnels to gather rocks and boulders where
gold is found. The loud blasts from homemade explosives reverberate in
the still of the cold and foggy night as if Balabag is a war zone.

The blasting of the mountain is so rampant that even authorities
cannot do anything to stop it. The lack of security forces to guard
the environment remains a sad reality in Balabag. The smuggling of
cyanide and ammonium nitrate and blasting caps - use as detonators for
homemade explosives - continue unabated.

The Miswi Intermediate School in Balabag has already been evacuated
because of tunnels dug by illegal miners beneath. The cracks on the
floor of the school are threatening the safety and lives of dozens of
students.
And there have been numerous illegal miners and workers buried alive
and all these have become bitter memories of families who lost their
loved ones in search for gold.

*‘Child Laborers’
The huge number of child workers has become increasingly alarming in
Balabag. Teenagers bear the heavy scar of illegal mining activities in
the mountain.
And everyday, they carry heavy boulders and rocks and crushed it with
hammer and steel and collected by ball mill workers in Balabag – and
all these dangerous jobs in exchange for small amount of money to feed
their hungry family.
Their limbs and lives are their only guarantee to earn a living from
the virtual gold rush area controlled by a few financiers and an army
of workers blinded by greed for money.

*‘Balabag Force’
The lack of security forces to help guard the mountain of Balabag and
protect the environment and people in Bayog has become part of life of
villagers living in the area who witnessed the destruction of their
land.
Natalio Bello, a member of the Special Civilian Active Auxiliaries of
the Philippine Army, says he is a living witness to the unabated
destruction of Balabag because of illegal mining activities.

“I have seen here the problems brought about by illegal miners. The
rampant blasting to make tunnels and their continued use of mercury,
cyanide and nitric acid is a bigger problem. The unabated dumping of
mine tailings by small scale miners is also another problem and these
tailings contain hazardous chemicals that contaminate our water
sources, our lakes and go down to the mountain and eventually to the
sea,” he says.

“We are afraid that these illegal activities are contaminating the
environment. The illegal miners extract minerals in the wrong way and
there have been numerous deaths related to these activities - those
who perished and buried alive in tunnels and landslides in Balabag -
and most of these cases are not even reported to the authorities. We
just hope that these problems are resolved soon,” says Bello, who is
under the command of 18th Infantry Battalion.

Bello is only one of few villagers trained by the government as
militia and deployed in Balabag to help protect the environment and
the human population in communities around the mountain.

*‘Gold Rush’
The whole Balabag area has been likened to gold rush sites in the
province of Compostela Valley in Davao region where thousands of
illegal miners are operating despite a government ban.

In Balabag, hundreds of families have put up their shanties in
mountain slopes, and are illegally mining for gold.
Financiers of illegal mining do not have government permits, not even
from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources and other concerned agencies. They do not pay
taxes for all the gold they have collected and sold to the black
markets.

There are also reports that some journalists are under the payroll of
financiers of illegal mining in Balabag to protect and defend them
from bad publicity and some even claimed to be members of the media
watchdog called National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
*‘Mines and Geosciences Bureau’
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Western Mindanao has acknowledged
the huge problems posed by illegal mining activities in Balabag and
has called on the Philippine National Police to investigate the
rampant blasting and smuggling of improvised explosives or materials
use in the manufacture of homemade bombs.

“There is a community of small scale miners there. These are informal
small scale miners similar to the problems in Pantukan and Diwalwal
(gold rush) in Compostela Valley. We have a gold-rush area in Balabag
and since I assumed office I realized that there is really a problem
brought about by illegal mining there,” says Albert Johann Jacildo,
the MGB regional director.

He says the geographical hazard map of Balabag shows that the mountain
area is vulnerable to landslides and posed dangers to illegal miners.
Jacildo says he also received a report about the evacuation of a
school in Balabag due to the cracks on the floor caused by tunnels dug
by illegal miners.

“We have received a report about this. We have photographs that showed
the cracks on the earth inside the school which may pose real danger
to the students. Our office immediately wrote to the regional police
director Chief Superintendent Napoleon Estilles and we are asking
their help because this (problem) involved explosives,” he says.

*‘Stop Illegal Mining Activities’
Various organizations and groups, lawmakers and mining corporations
have asked the government to put a stop to illegal mining activities
in the country because of its ill-effects to the environment and
dangers posed by their continued operation to human life.

Hundreds had died from landslides and collapsed of tunnels in areas
where there are rampant illegal mining activities, especially in
Mindanao.
President Benigno Aquino says he would act on the problems of illegal
mining and create the National Anti-Illegal Mining Task Force to carry
out his order to put a stop to it.

by: Al Jacinto

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