Illegal mining operations in Bayog town in Zamboanga del Sur province in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
PAGADIAN CITY (Al Jacinto / Oct. 24, 2012) – Philippine authorities on Wednesday shut down dozens of illegal mining operations in the southern province of Zamboanga del Sur, enforcing a long-due government order to halt all forms of destructive mining practice in the area.
The operations, which started on Tuesday, targeted small-scale miners who are members of the Monte de Oro Small Scale Miners Association operating in Balabag Hill in Bayog town, where the TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. also operates.
A police convoy, briefly halted by a roadside explosion in the town, swooped down in Balabag and dismantled dozens of rod mills and other structures used by illegal miners. Members of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group were also in the area supervising the operations.
Policemen also seized illegal chemicals, including mercury, nitric acid and cyanide, used by local miners in the processing of gold.
“We are happy that authorities finally enforced the government order to put a stop to all illegal mining activities in Balabag,” Lullie Micabalo, a spokesperson for TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc., told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The Zamboanga del Sur provincial government and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have previously ordered a stop to all hazardous and illegal mining operations in Balabag, especially those involving the Monte de Oro Small Scale Miners Association, but the unabated illegal mining activities still continue.
The Monte de Oro Small Scale Miners Association insisted its operation is legal and even applied for a permit so its members can continue their activities, but the Provincial Mineral Regulatory Board also issued a resolution denying the group’s application to mine.
Illegal miners have been operating in Balabag for more than a decade now and were largely blamed for the destruction of the mountain and environmental pollution in the town.
In July, a private security guard shot Godofredo Jungoy, Jr. dead an illegal miner Wilbert Catampungan who was trying to smuggle chemicals and fuel inside an area where the TVI operates.
The company said the security guard was only defending himself after he had been attacked and mauled by a gang of mine workers. The illegal miners, who are members of the Monte de Oro Small Scale Miners Association, were sneaking under cover of darkness bags of cyanide, activated carbon, and diesel fuel to use in their outlawed gold processing plants in Balabag.
Jungoy, accompanied by his lawyer, told police that he was trying to stop a group of illegal miners, who were smuggling illegal chemicals within the area of TVI in Balabag where the company has a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement with the government.
MPSA is an agreement between a TVIRD and the Philippine government wherein the firm is granted exclusive right to conduct mining operations within Balabag. (Al Jacinto)
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