Small miners defy gov’t order, open gold tunnels in Compostela Valley

DAVAO CITY—Small-scale miners in Barangay Napnapan in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, defied the government’s no-habitation policy issued last month when they opened their gold tunnels on Wednesday.

The Inquirer repeatedly tried but failed to seek reactions from Compostela Valley Gov. Arturo Uy on the defiance of the miners.

Belen Galleto, secretary general of the Save Pantukan alliance, which supports the small-scale miners, said the tunnels opened were far from Sitio Diat Uno, site of January’s deadly slides that killed 36 people—including children.

The government has declared a no-habitation policy on landslide-prone areas of Pantukan, including Napnapan, after the slides. This resulted in the closure of several gold tunnels there.

Paciano Banuelos, one of the defiant small-scale miners, said at least 11 tunnels had been reopened starting 10 a.m.  on Wednesday amid incessant rains.

He said they decided to do so because their families had become hungry.

“Our families are going hungry, it’s becoming unbearable,” Banuelos said in a text message to the Inquirer.

He said they could not wait for the pledge of livelihood that the government made when the tunnels were closed.

“We cannot just sit here and watch our family starve,” Banuelos said.

Reminded about the dangers of slides in Napnapan, as the Mines and Geosciences Bureau had warned of, Banuelos said what they reopened were tunnels “safe enough” to dig in.

“We did not open tunnels close to Diat Uno and those near land cracks,” he said.

Diat Uno was the site of the deadly slides.

When the no-habitation policy was issued in the aftermath of the slides, many miners stayed in Napnapan.

On Wednesday, a government demolition team was supposed to tear down more shanties to prevent people from living there but rains prevented them from climbing up the hinterland mining area, Galleto said.

The people in Sitio Diat Palo, the community facing Diat Uno, had prepared to hold a human barricade on Wednesday to prevent the government demolition team from carrying out the mayor’s order to dismantle their houses but they did not come, she said.

Banuelos said that instead of the human barricade, the miners decided to open their tunnels. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao