Cement firm expansion feared to trigger disasters

ILIGAN CITY—Residents of Barangay (village) Kiwalan and neighboring villages here are standing up against the proposed mine expansion of Holcim Cement Philippines.

The residents, during a public consultation on Saturday, said they feared that an expansion of Holcim’s mining activities would trigger a catastrophe similar to the December floods that killed over 1,000 persons and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

The residents, assembled at Kiwalan Elementary School, said they believed the company’s mining activities in other villages of the city were among the factors that worsened the effects of Tropical Storm “Sendong.”

But engineer Edgar Ayoma, Holcim’s operation and development officer in charge, said Holcim is a responsible company and it follows strict standards in its operation.

He said the fear of the residents was baseless and that the company can assure them the mining operation was safe.

“The operation will be supervised by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau,” he said.

Ben Pavillar, a resident of Kiwalan, said during the public consultation that the residents were also not comfortable with Holcim’s plan to use explosives to extract limestones from their village.

Rogelio Dag-uman, another resident, said their experience with other cement companies showed that the use of explosives in mining activities affected their water source.

He said the Iligan Cement Corp. used explosives in conducting mining in the village, which resulted in the damage to their water sources. “The water became scarce,” Romeo Gabuya, also a resident of Kiwalan, said.

“The blasting would follow conditions set by regulating agencies,” Ayoma said, as he tried to convince residents that the blasting would not have ill-effects on their water sources.

Roderico Dumaug Jr., the president of the Centrist Democratic Movement, said he doubted if the blasting could be regulated at all.

“With the deficits in our democracy, mining in the Philippines contributed largely to environmental degradation affecting the lives of the people today and at the same time compromising the lives of future generations,” Dumaug said.

Dumaug said based on reports from government and nongovernment organizations, one of the five main reasons for the December 16 Sendong tragedy here was the continuous mining operations, including in many areas of Lanao del Norte. The mining activities, he said, aggravated the siltation of the rivers and their tributaries.