ZAMBOANGA CITY—A ranking regional police officer is facing investigation after a mayor accused him of involvement in illegal mining in a province where illegal and small-scale mines thrive.
Chief Insp. Prudencio Enojo Jr., deputy head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Western Mindanao, had been accused by Dumingag Mayor Nacianceno Pacalioga Jr. of involvement in illegal mining.
The head of the Western Mindanao police, Chief Supt. Elpidio de Asis, said police are conducting the investigation even in the absence of a formal complaint against Enojo.
“There was an allegation but no formal complaint has been filed against him,” De Asis said.
Mayor Pacalioga had accused Enojo of involvement in illegal mining in Barangay Licabang in the same town.
Pacalioga said Enojo claimed ownership of a truckload of mine sludge that authorities had seized on Nov. 10.
The cargo contained mineral ores bound for a processing facility and should have been covered by permits such as for extraction and transport, he said.
“He appeared with his wife and owned the seized cargo as if to stress that it needed to be released the soonest,” Pacalioga said.
Enojo earlier said it was his wife, Nieves, who is actually involved in buying sludge from small-scale miners.
But in a follow-up interview with the Inquirer, he said Nieves was just a friend of small-scale miners.
Enojo did not deny that he went to see Mayor Pacalioga.
“But I was not able to meet him. I did not go there to intervene but to verify why the cargo was seized,” he said.
Enojo also told the Inquirer he was open to any official investigation by the Philippine National Police so he can clear his name.
Senior Supt. Generoso Bonifacio, CIDG Western Mindanao chief, said De Asis had summoned Enojo to explain his alleged involvement in illegal mining in Dumingag.
Bonifacio said Enojo had initially told him that he had no involvement in mining as Pacalioga had alleged.
Bonifacio said based on Enojo’s explanation, the sludge being transported was plain mine waste.
“It is not illegal because it is waste,” he quoted the police officer as saying.
Small-scale and illegal mines are thriving in Zamboanga del Sur, with competing mining operators employing retired generals and soldiers to secure their stakes on mineral rich areas in the province.
The provincial government, however, has asked the PNP to stop the armed security forces of competing operators from terrorizing residents and disarm those that are protecting mining operations that have not been issued licenses by the local government.
President Aquino didn’t change the policy of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on mining, supporting the expansion of mining in the country and exempting the industry from a total ban on logging. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao