Robredo orders forced evacuation of disaster site

PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley, Philippines—Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo ordered Friday the forced evacuation of people from mining areas in Barangay Napnapan and the closure of mine tunnels there in the wake of Thursday’s landslide that killed at least 22 people.

Robredo, who visited the disaster area on Thursday, said President Aquino has also ordered an investigation to determine if local officials were remiss in their responsibilities considering that the area had already been ordered evacuated as early as April last year because of the danger from frequent landslides.

Thursday’s landslide killed at least 22 people, not 25 as officials had reported earlier, and at least seven more were listed missing.

Robredo said President Aquino’s order was clear: Prevent more disasters from occurring.

He said the evacuation order should be enforced within the next two weeks, with the Army and the police leading the demolition of shanties remaining in the area.

Robredo said gold processing facilities will also be dismantled and transferred from the mining area to the lowlands “so there would be no reason anymore for bunkhouses or shanties to be built at mining sites.”

He said processing facility owners were given three months from Friday to comply with the directive.

Robredo said the number of security forces participating in the drive would be limited “so as not to militarize the mining sites.”

Col. Roberto Domines, commander of the Army’s 1001st Infantry Brigade, said they were ready to implement the order.

Domines corrected earlier reports that over a hundred individuals were unaccounted for. He said as of Friday, only seven people remained missing.

“Chaos and confusion immediately set in after the incident and various sources caused the conflicting figures,” he said.

Pantukan Mayor Celso Sarenas said the disaster was “very painful” due to the huge loss of life but “it happened already, so what we are focusing on now is to find a solution to the problem.”

`Perpetual magnets’

Local officials said the lack of opportunity and the lure of money due to the high gold prices are “perpetual magnets” for small-time miners to ignore the risks.

Senior Supt. Timoteo Pacleb, Compostela Valley police chief, said more landslides were expected as Thursday’s landslide created a 300-meter-long, 60-meter-wide and 150-meter-deep fissure on the side of the mountain.

Robredo said there was no reason for the forced evacuation and the closure of illegal mining activities there to fail this time. He said there were enough laws and local ordinances banning mining operations in geologically unstable areas.

The recent provincial ordinance on no habitation in the Pantukan side of the  Diwata mountain range was issued following last April’s Good Friday landslide that killed over a dozen people.

“I guess, we also have shortcomings in the implementation (of the ordinance),” Compostela Valley Gov.  Arturo Uy said.

Robredo said the national government would implement the Balik-Probinsya program for the landslide survivors as well those who would be evicted in other mining areas.

Financial assistance such as fares would be given to them as eight out of 10 victims of the landslide were not Pantukan residents, he said.

Alternative livelihoods

“We will send them back to their respective provinces and through the program, we would be able to give them alternative livelihoods,” Mindanao Development Authority chair Luwalhati Antonino said.

Uy said Robredo’s order would be difficult to implement but they will enforce it anyway.

He said over 30,000 families in his province depend on small-scale mining for their livelihood.

“You can imagine how hard it is to convince these people to abandon mining. For them, the lure of high gold prices is simply irresistible. Even if you give these miners land to farm, they would still go to the mountains to dig for gold,” he said.

Domines agreed, saying that Uy’s claim was proven when the ban was ordered last year.

“The miners would play cat-and-mouse with the local government,” he said.

Elenita Traya, a midwife sent to assist in the recovery of landslide victims, said it was no longer safe for people to be in the area  because a day after the  landslide occurred, rocks and soil continue to fall.

“Even while we were there, taking a rest in a shed, we continued to hear warning signs being sounded from above us, which means rocks continued to fall and that there was still a threat that the soil will collapse,” Traya said.