The Philippine government on Friday ordered the shutdown of 500 small mines threatened by landslides in a southern town where a chunk of a mountain tumbled down on sleeping residents and killed at least 27 people.
Al Jazeera reports that Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo informed that gold-mining tunnels will be shut down and all houses demolished in the landslide-ravaged areas of Pantukan town in Compostela Valley.
According to the authorities, the lack of opportunity and the lure of money due to the high gold prices are “perpetual magnets” for small-time miners to ignore the risks of the activity.
7 Comments
Sammy_dumdum
The Philippine National and various Mindanao Provincial governments should therefore encourage the big well-funded miners to come and operate these mineral rich areas and give the “pick and shovel guys” first employment opportunities where their safety, health and families are better taken cared of. This also means that the local kingpins and warlords in these areas who provide advance-funding; loans, really, (to these little “miners”) for tools and materials (in exchange for exclusive and exploitative buying prices for mineral extracts) should promptly be “decommisioned” and dismantled”… so to speak. These “vulture” capitalist-warlords/kingpins are the guys who actually, albeit indirectly, destroy the environment. They donot build proper roads and infras in the areas; no schools and medical facilities for their “client miners”; nor do they do any replanting/reforestation programs. They should be the targets of these so-called “environmentalist advocates” who naively (or even knowingly) front for these vulture-capitalists who get huge financial benefits without the concommitant social and ecological duty of care!!
jimmy
This vidio, looks to me like the locals are just doing anything they can to survive. Why doesn’t the Govt. just leave them alone? All that they want is to make a living and feed there families.
Keep the government out and the big” get rich quick” companies out as well. Nature will heal itself in time.
SBernales
Illegal mining activities thrive in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao, because of the lack of implementation of mining laws by the government. In addition, the so called “financier” and people behind this illegal mining are rich businessmen and powerful politicians. These “kingpins” and “warlord” are capitalizing on poverty-stricken people to work for them. The term small-scale mining is a misnomer. Even if they are small-scale mining, a huge capital is still needed. There is no way that an “ordinary” person, can mine without any capital or without any financial help. Since mining is illegal, they don’t adhere to best practices and environmental damages is the last of their worries. The small-scale miner can be called “small” in comparison to real mining companies. Being small, they cannot afford to do proper and safe mining. They don’t have enough money for safety purposes. The money goes directly to production-related endeavor. Also, being illegal, they don’t respect boundaries. They undermine each other disregarding safety. They only look for the well-being of their own tunnel. Nobody is looking after the general safety issue. I strongly agree with Sammy_dumdum that these kingpins and warlords should be decommissioned and dismantled. The only people that benefit from this illegal mining are the kingpins and warlords. This is not the first mining accident in these region. Bigger accidents happened in Diwalwal and other nearby small-scale mining areas in the region. The government must act once and for all to enforce mining laws and stop illegal mining.
Norman Baybayan
I don’t hear or never heard of catastrophic landslides caused by the operations of major mining companies for simple reason that they have responsibilities with regards to the overall safety of their operations and they are bound to adhere to government rules/laws. Almost always, small scale mining operations are only “money-driven” without disregard to safety. The financiers are almost always big name kingpins and politicians who only want to get the votes of these poor workers. Illegal mining in the Philippines & in other parts of the world don’t follow any environmental and safety regulations from the government.
Dulayrobert
it is the biasness of the Mining Act towards small scale mining that has caused so much negative impressions on the Small Scale Mining:
to name a few:
small scale mining is given 2 years while large scale mining is given 25 years plus 25 years
small scale mining can only use pick and shovel while the large scale mining can blast their way inside the mineral rich tunnels
small scale mining is at the mercy of corrupt policticians while large scale mining is somehow immune from these politicians
small scale mining has no access to funding,only foriegners,whale sharks,5-6 etc who advance small amount of money but controls practically all the aspects of the small scale operations..just recently,a large scale mining company was given a loan of ph1.8 billion pesos
large scale mining only employs the local people and they are at the mercy of the exploitative character of these large companies,their profit is a very miniscule percentage from the income these companies derive from their operations..while small scale mining is owned by the local people ,by the cultural minorities,by the small entrepreneurs…the sector of the community that if not given a chance..insurgency breeds..criminal mine grows..
it is the small scale mining sector that must be protected not eliminated..why don’t this government treat this sector with the same equality as the large scale..better yet..putting more priority to them rather than..treating them as squatters to their own land::
if this is done..mining will be truly RESPONSIBLE AND A MAJOR SOURCE FOR LIVELIHOOD
FOR THE WHOLE PHILIPPINE SOCIETY
ex gov Robert V Dulay
09202742376 / 09155106493
Frustrated Miner..
I recently heard that there are plans by the national goverment to give a full authority on the LG side allowing them to conduct and engaged in businesses on any kind which will help them spur livelihood within their local jurisdictions. Maybe a good move that can create good & systematic approach . This somehow maybe very applicable within the areas which are being covered by the small scale mining activity….In which a local goverment could also ran and regulate their respective mining areas in regard to small scale mining operations. Where they can regulate and put a system in regard from the actual mining operation , the safety concerns, ore disposals and final selling to acrredited buyers . Meaning a LG could ran a mining operation. I dont know if this is possible but maybe a worth of study & exploring within its means . Because as for me as long as there are no strict implementations of whatever law that will be made, there would always be less safety, unsound practices for these small scale miners.Maybe if things be regulated for them accordingly and somehow be strictly enforced.. it may assure them of a safe livelihood for even generations to come..Maybe a LG could also be assured to benefit more from the resources of their land instead of just obtaining taxes from large scale operators of the area…
Gold miner
Unfortunately this is the Philippines ,in respect to certain agency corruption at the highest level. Being a ex-patriot miner in the area for years safety is still the responsibility of the tunnel owner (financier) the disregard of this in many cases simply is due to changes in cost of doing business due to greed by local officials.These out rages changes from month to month is called doing business in Mindanao and all tunnel owners should have guide lines to follow,but impossible if they are the only ones that have rules to follow,and corruption can change there own rules daily. Feel sad for the families loss, just trying to make a living in such a corrupt area. All you financiers should make safety first,,IYIYI