TAYABAS CITY – Concerned that illegal treasure-hunting activities could ruin Mount Banahaw, more than 1,500 local officials, religious members, mountaineers and environmentalists trekked to the mystic mountain on Sunday and sealed off hurriedly abandoned mine tunnels and excavation sites.

“The collective action of Tayabasin was their strongest manifestation in their condemnation of illegal treasure-hunting activities in Mt. Banahaw,” environmentalist lawyer Sheila de Leon, director of the Tanggol Kalikasan-Southern Tagalog, told the Inquirer on Monday.

The protesters, led by Tayabas Mayor Faustino Silang, left the city plaza and traveled for two hours to the village of Lalo, accompanied by 15 Army soldiers sent by Maj. Gen. Delfin Bangit, newly installed commander of the military’s Southern Luzon Command based in Camp Nakar, Lucena City.

When they arrived at the excavation site, they hauled stones from a nearby river to close the entrance of the lone tunnel and three other holes.

“The local officials plan to seal off the tunnel and holes with concrete in the coming days,” De Leon said.

Citing statements from the villagers, she said illegal treasure hunters had been digging the place for three weeks, escorted by six heavily armed policemen.

The policemen had left the place in a patrol vehicle, the villagers were quoted as saying.

Senior Supt. Fidel Posadas, provincial police director, had earlier confirmed that the six policemen belonged to the Provincial Police Mobile Group based in Candelaria town, which has jurisdiction over Tayabas. But he refuted reports of illegal treasure-hunting activities.

Asked what the policemen were doing in the area, Posadas replied: “We have an ongoing operation in the area.” He declined to elaborate.

“Apparently, the diggers were tipped off of this protest mobilization. But they left a hurriedly scribbled note in a bond paper addressed to the protest leaders, admitting that they were really searching for buried Japanese treasures,” said Jay Lim, TK program director.

The note, written on a piece of bond paper with the letterhead and logo of “The Last Hunters,” vowed that the proceeds of treasure-hunting activities would be used to develop the villages.

Lim said the note also contained a mobile phone number, 09298739603. When Tayabas Vice Mayor Brando Rea called up the number, a male voice answered and introduced himself as a “lawyer” from Lalo.

The “lawyer” insisted that they were not doing anything illegal and claimed that the project had the blessings of President Macapagal-Arroyo and ranking military officials, which he did not identify.