(First of two parts)
LIBERTAD, Antique—Milagros Tambuong, 76, still remembers what her parents and great grandparents taught her and her siblings when they were young. “If the trees were cut and the mountains leveled, we will eventually run out of water,” she said.
From her house in Barangay San Roque here, she looked at the lush forest canopy of Mount Pinupo and shook her head. “Those mountains are dear to us because we depend on the river and trees for our food and livelihood.”
For the past several months, Tambuong and other villagers have resisted mining activities being carried out by a mayor and his wife from Iloilo, and another person in San Roque, especially in Mt. Pinupo.
On Oct. 5, Gov. Exequiel Javier issued small-scale mining permits to Mayor Jesry Palmares of Passi City in Iloilo, his wife Jinky, and Teodoro Loriega. Each applicant is allowed to extract 70,000 metric tons of iron ore, or a total of 210,000 MT, yearly in San Roque.
The permits cover a total area of 50.71 hectares—19.96 ha for Palmares, 12.11 ha for his wife, and 18.64 ha for Noriega. These are good for two years and can be renewed for two more years.
Mayor Palmares has allayed concerns that the mining operations will severely affect areas near the site. “We have complied with all requirements and followed laws and procedures. If we have violated anything, we will stop our operations and government agencies will not allow us to proceed,” he said.
He pointed out that the projects were granted an environment certificate of compliance (ECC) by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) regional office, an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The ECC, issued by Oscar Cabanayan, acting EMB regional director, on April 16, 2010, prescribed a manual mode of mining through the use of picks, mattocks, iron bars, shovels and other pointed tools. But Cabanayan amended it on Aug. 24 to include heavy equipment, such as a bulldozer, two backhoes and a payloader, hauling trucks and a compressor.
Under the People’s Small-scale Mining Act of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7076), small-scale mining covers an area of not more than 20 ha and restricts activities to “those relying heavily on manual labor using simple implement and methods and do not use explosives or heavy mining equipment.”
Mignon Francis Ortega, secretary of the Antique-based Pagtatap Foundation, and other critics of the project, says small-scale mining operations are actually large-scale mining projects.
The San Roque sites are actually part of a 1,279.9709-ha area that is the subject of a pending application for an exploration permit (EP) filed by Archlegan Mines Corp. (AMC) on Aug. 14, 2008, documents from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) showed.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), AMC was formed on July 24, 2008, with Mayor Palmares as president, and his wife, Loriega, Charlie Chan, Baltazar Panizales and Leo Buencochillo as officers and incorporators.
The EP application covers San Roque and Barangay Pajo in Libertad, and Barangays Luhod-Bayang, Duyong, Tingib and Mag-aba in the neighboring town of Pandan. It was endorsed by the regional MGB to its central office on June 30 for approval of the bureau.
A permit is effective for two years and renewable for another two years.
So that small-scale mining operations could proceed in the area covered by the EP application, the AMC board passed a resolution waiving its claims to the area in favor of individual applications filed by the company’s officers, according to MGB Western Visayas Director Leo Van Juguan.
Palmares explained that the officers decided to apply for small-scale permits because large-scale mining appeared unfeasible in the area based on initial studies.
Another company, JC Hartman Mines Inc. (JCHMI), has been conducting surveys and exploring a 768-ha area covered by an MPSA (Mineral Production Sharing Agreement) issued to Tudor Mineral Exploration Corp. The MPSA, issued on Jan. 16, 2001, covers San Roque and four other barangays of Libertad.
Based on SEC records, JCHMI was formed on Nov. 28, 2008, with the Palmares couple, Noriega, Panizales and Chan as incorporators.
But in documents submitted to the SEC late last year, Mayor Jesry Palmares was listed as a minority stockholder with Chan Ka Che Ong, a Hong Kong national, as chair. The controlling share belongs to TSGS Mineral Investments Inc.
Palmares said he entered into a partnership with other investors because of the large capital requirement for mining operations.
JCHMI sent a geological team to the Tudor MPSA area in late October to conduct surveys and researches for a period of six weeks.
According to Ma. Geobelyn Lopez, secretary general of the Madia-as Ecological Movement, small-scale mining applications and operations in Panay, as well as in Guimaras, are really large-scale projects. The two islands have a combined area of 1,229,704 ha with remaining forest cover reaching only 207,647 ha.
The projects involve the extraction and processing of metallic and nonmetallic minerals, including gold, copper, chromite, manganese, iron, marble, silica and limestone.
As of August, pending and approved applications for mining rights in Panay and Guimaras cover a total of 162,774.9 ha, data from the MGB regional office showed. These include 140,958.9 ha with pending applications and 21,816 ha with approved applications.
In Guimaras alone, the coverage of pending and approved mining applications has reached 34,588.167 ha or more than half (57.21 percent) of the 60,457-ha land area of the island-province.
(To be continued)