A BOY plays with a banca in Barangay Palanas, a seaside mining
community, in Paracale, CamNorte, seemingly oblivious of the mining disaster
and retrieval operation in one of the thatched structures that house mining
pits behind him. – Photo courtesy of JONAS CABILES SOLTES/INQUIRER SOUTHERN
LUZON
By JONAS CABILES SOLTES and MAR A ANGELES
LEGAZPI CITY: Unabated diggings of crisscrossing tunnels by miners
seeking gold ore deposits in Paracale, Labo and Jose Panganiban in CamNorte are
invitations to major disasters during extreme weather conditions, said Gilbert Gonzales,
regional executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR).
Gonzales said during an interview that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau
(MGB) was still counting the crisscrossing tunnels, including abandoned ones,
made by small-scale mining operations.
“The data would give us an in-depth study on the dangers posed by the
mining operations in the three mining towns,” he said.
Lydia Burburan, DENR Ecosystem Research and Development Services
Regional Technical Director, said miners had dug up crisscrossing tunnels
ranging from 25 to 100m in vertical and horizontal mining shafts.
These were discovered during an assessment of small-scale mining
operations in the three mining towns in Camarines Norte.
She said the presence of this type of tunnels is a major issue that
needs to be addressed by the DENR and provincial local executives.
She said
small-scale mining operations in the three towns produce 50 tons of gold
yearly.
In Paracale, the body of small-scale miner Julian Cabaruvia, 22,
floated up a mining pit last Thursday last week while another body was also sighted
in the same pit that same day in the seaside village of Palanas, just 2km from
the town proper here, the CamNorte police said.
The retrieval of Cabaruvia’s body from a pit around 7m away from where
a blast was initially reported to have occurred on Wednesday bolstered
suggestions that the blast could have pierced neighboring pits submerged in
seawater, said Senen Inocalla, administrative aide of Paracale Mayor Romeo
Moreno.
The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council placed the
death toll at three due to the mining accident. The three were Cabaruvia, Luis
Policarpio, 33, and Carlo Delos Santos, 27.
Authorities, however, believe more bodies could be trapped amid the
rubble and debris that may have prevented bodies from floating up.
Help
Inocalla said rescuers have yet to explore and clear up the area where
the accident happened but the municipal government had already asked help from
the regional office of civil defense, which sent a team of nine, including
technical divers, to oversee the operation on Thursday night.
“The retrieval operation has been hampered by lack of divers and by
obstructions, including wood with nails and rock-filled sacks, which were
making it almost impossible to go down the mining pits,” she said.
Authorities deemed at least seven mining pits were affected by the
blast. The seven were among at least a hundred mining pits, with some exceeding
depths of 20 meters, in the seaside community.
She said the local church has offered help to the municipal government.
Although out of town on an official trip, Moreno had given instructions
to continue with the retrieval operation until all bodies were found, she
added.
Moreno had been criticized for leaving despite an ongoing retrieval
operation.
The MGB has ordered the total dismantling of the structures in the mine
site and urged the enforcement of a
cease-and-desist order earlier issued by local authorities.
Gonzales said there was an order to close down all small-scale mining
operations in coastal areas following a “no-mining order” issued by the late
Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to local governments.
He said his office has no hand in the issuance of small-scale mining
permits as it is the domain of the provincial government under the Local
Government Code.
No one knew the whereabouts of mining financier Agosto Jordan, who
allegedly owns the pit where the blast occurred.
Inocalla said because of the accident, the municipal government was
bent on stopping all small-scale mining operations in the municipality and the
eviction of all miners illegally operating in Palanas and its neighboring
village of Malaguit.
“But we anticipate that the move would cripple the already failing
economy of Paracale that is heavily dependent on mining,” she said.
Inocalla said high-grade gold
ore deposits in the seaside community has lured townsfolk to the area.
Gov Edgardo Tallado said the provincial government has been helpless in
stopping illegal mining in Paracale because miners keep on returning despite
cease-and-desist orders. - Inquirer
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