Church-led protest halts illegal mining in Zambo Sur town

SEALED This mine tunnel in Barangay Licabang, Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur, is one of the at least 20 illegal sites closed on Saturday by personnel from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and local authorities on Saturday, Feb 22. —Diocese of Pagadian

DUMINGAG, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, Philippines — The Church-led daily picket that started here on Feb. 12 led to the closure of illegal mining tunnels in Barangay Licabang here on Saturday, local government officials and Catholic priests said.

Dumingag Mayor Gerry Paglinawan told the Inquirer on Saturday that personnel from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), along with environment officials and security forces, locked down at least 20 mining tunnels in the village, barring the entrances of each tunnel with solid wood.

Leaders of the Catholic Church witnessed Saturday’s closure of mining tunnels in Licabang but said they were not dismantling their picket line yet until all illegal mining activities in other areas in the province have stopped.

READ: Illegal mining in Zamboanga del Sur town probed

The illegal mining tunnels in Licabang continued to operate despite the cease and desist order (CDO) issued by the MGB on May 4 last year, prompting the Diocese of Pagadian and its parishes to hold a picket along the national highway in Barangay Licabang.

The picket line, put up some 10 kilometers from the town proper of Dumingag and around 6 kilometers from the recently closed mining tunnels, is manned by parishioners from the different parishes of the diocese. Fr. Jonnie Atetio, parish priest of Tambulig and vicar forane of the Salug Valley’s St. Vincent Ferrer Vicariate, who joined authorities in closing the mine tunnels, said he hoped the illegal miners would not open the tunnels again, as there were incidents in the past when these miners went back to their tunnels months after these were padlocked.

According to Atetio, they would not let their guard down since “the issue of illegal mining does not only exist in Dumingag town but in the whole Zamboanga del Sur province.”

Pagadian Diocese vicar general Rev. Monsignor Belstar Ediang, in a phone interview Saturday, affirmed the picket would stay in Barangay Licabang, near the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office checkpoint, to monitor possible resumption of the illegal mining operation.

The Pagadian Diocese also expressed alarm over the continuing mining applications in the towns of Pitogo, Dimataling, Tabina, and Tigbao.

Pagadian Bishop Martin Jumoad, in a Feb. 14 pastoral letter, highlighted the church’s concern over the environmental toll caused by illegal mining in Dumingag, despite the MGB’s CDO, and in Mahayag, Midsalip and Bayog.

“We should take a stand against [mining] so that we do not suffer from the same terrible effects experienced in other places [like] Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, [when] their seas were poisoned because of the waste coming from the mine,” part of the pastoral letter read.

The letter also cited the mining activities in Midsalip, which in the past resulted in the contamination of the town’s water and badly eroded its soil, affecting the communities near the mining site.

Ediang said the Diocese of Pagadian also called on the authorities to temporarily put on hold all the existing applications for mining in the province so these could go through proper environmental scrutiny before they would be approved.