SAN FERNANDO, Sibuyan Island – Every morning, Perlita Rodaje, 67, waters the flowers around the bust of Armin Marin which was built on the exact spot where Marin was killed on Oct. 3, 2007.

Perlita lives in a house about 30 meters away from where Marin was shot dead in Barangay España in San Fernando town in Sibuyan Island, Romblon.

Each night, also, she never fails to light the lamp that would cast a glow on the sculptured face of the town councilor who was gunned down after leading a protest of 150 islanders against the nickel exploration project of Sibuyan Nickel Property Development Corp. (SNPDC) on the island.

Asked why she cares for the bust, Perlita, a colleague of Marin at the Sibuyanons Against Mining Movement (SAM), said: “I just feel I need to do it.”

But Inday, Marin’s 44-year-old widow, knows why. She says the people love him because he sacrificed his life to be at the forefront of the people’s outcry to stop mining.

Inday says she was preparing a meal for the protesters when she heard gunshots ring out. She rushed to find out what happened and saw her husband sprawled on the ground with blood all over his face.

Marin’s sister Mary Ann narrates that the vehicle of the mining company appeared in the rally but the people barricaded the street.

Marin mediated between the protesters and the mining firm’s employees, the chief security guard Mario Chinalpan Kingo and staffer Lea Ladica who was onboard an owner-type jeepney.

“Armin asked the protesters to let the vehicle pass but the angry villagers refused,” recalls Mary Ann.

So he just asked the mining employees to drive back, adds Mary Ann.

“I saw him guiding them on their way back but as they got far, we heard gunshots,” she says.

Protesters rushed to Marin and found him lying face down with blood oozing from his neck.

According to villagers, the driver of the jeepney pointed a gun at Marin’s mouth and shot him.

Right after the incident, Kingo surrendered to the police. He is presently detained at the Romblon provincial jail while two of his companions were reportedly out on bail.

A graduate of Civil Engineering at the Feati University, Marin, 44, was the first antimining activist in the town to be killed and the 20th in the country since 2001.

Domingo, Marin’s 66-year-old father, says the big number of people who sympathized with their family after Marin’s death eased the pain they felt.

He remembers that Marin’s body had to be carried around the island across the towns of Magdiwang, Cajidiocan and San Fernando because of the request of the residents.

He showed a video footage showing around 200 motorcycle riders and almost 5,000 people who joined the motorcade to the cemetery where he was laid to rest.

“A lot of people loved Marin the same way we loved him,” he says.

Domingo adds that the bust, which is perched on top of an 8-foot pedestal, was the idea of a priest, to remind the people of Marin’s deeds.

He says the priests in Sibuyan helped gather funds for the bust, which was constructed in March early this year and unveiled last May.

“The bust was built in memory of his sacrifices and the villagers’ pursuit to stop the mining activities that they believe would damage their treasured mountains,” says Rev. Father Joey Valencia, parish priest of Barangay España, the village here where the exploration of nickel has begun.

Sibuyan Island is famous for Mt. Guiting-Guiting, a natural park. At its foot nestle the towns of San Fernando, Cajidiocan and Magdiwang.

The island has been compared to Asia’s Galapagos, an archipelago in South America, which teems with unique species.

Cantingas River, notable as the country’s cleanest river, is also located in Sibuyan.

According to the World Wild Fund For Nature, Sibuyan is home to six mammals found nowhere else, 700 vascular plant species, of which 57 are endemic, and more than 131 bird species.

Villagers say that during typhoons when their crops are destroyed, they turn to the sea to fish but when the sea gets disturbed they seek refuge in the mountains.

People fear that the rape of the mountains as a result of mining would cause landslides and flashfloods.

“If that happens, where will we go?” anxiously asks Jelyn Malavega, 42, a resident of Barangay España.

Valencia says the people here are already tired of government officials’ lies.

The incumbent San Fernando Mayor Nanette Tansingco promised them during her election campaign that she would do everything to stop mining, she adds.

“But just two months after she won the elections, she told the people she couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

In previous conversations with the Inquirer, Tansingco said she could not do anything to block mining because the permits were already signed when she assumed office.

After reading all the documents, she found out that the mining corporations followed the legal process.

Valencia, however says, the people were never consulted before the approval of the mining explorations.

The people still find hope in this case, Valencia says, because they feel they are not alone and they are determined to fight.