MACARTHUR TOWN, Leyte—The old woman wailed when she saw a number of her fully grown tilapia floating in Lake Bito in MacArthur, one of the poorest towns of Leyte and the Eastern Visayas region, on March 15.
The sight was painful for Brenie Morcilla, 66, who was expecting a bountiful harvest of at least 4 kilograms of the fish that she planned to sell to the market while keeping a few for consumption.
“I really cried so hard. I was really at a loss. There was hatred … why did this happen to us?” she asked.
Morcilla was among the 20 fish cage owners who suffered losses when the once emerald-colored lake turned murky and brown that day. At least 21,000 kg of tilapia worth P1.7 million died. She lost 6,250 kg worth more than P531,000.
Fish pen operators sell their produce at P85 per kilogram to public markets in the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc, both in Leyte.
When a similar fishkill struck on May 12, people of Barangays Villa Imelda and Liwayway, who depend on Lake Bito for sustenance, blamed Nicua Mining Co., a Chinese firm which has been extracting black sand half a kilometer away and exporting it to China since 2010.
P50,000 fine
They put up a barricade along Saloquege Creek at the boundary of Villa Imelda and Barangay Pongon, demanding compensation and a stop to magnetite mining. They also went to court and filed an application for temporary protection order to stop Nicua’s operations as these had also affected farmlands.
In June, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources ordered the mining company to pay a fine of P50,000 for contaminating the lake. But the fisherfolk were not happy.
Aside from the compensation for the two fishkill incidents, Jesus Cabias, president of the Lake Bito Fisherfolk Association, said the people also wanted Nicua to stop its mining activities in MacArthur, which has a population of over 20,000 in 31 villages.
Cabias, 39, who has nine children, said he used to harvest 4 kg of tilapia from the three fish cages given to him by his mother in 2000 when she retired as a teacher. Now, he said, his harvest dropped to almost nothing.
Bito, one of the major lakes in Eastern Visayas, spans six barangays in MacArthur and two barangays in Javier town. Residents have put up fish pens as their means of livelihood.
Nicua has so far extracted at least 200,000 metric tons of black sand. A metric ton of black sand is sold for $100 in the world market today.
Other causes
The company’s resident manager, Elmer Ragas, said it was unfair for the farmers and fishermen to blame the fishkills on their operation. He pointed out that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) investigation showed that mining was not the only cause of the disaster.
“Why would we pay for something we were not responsible for? We have proven that there are other causes and not the effect of mining operations on Lake Bito,” he said.
The fishkills could also be attributed to too many fish cages on the lake and the dumping of human and domestic wastes, said Justerie Granali, BFAR director for Eastern Visayas.
Under the Philippine Fisheries Code, only 10 percent of the lake should be used for commercial purposes, such as the establishment of fish cages and pens, Granali said.
Congestion
Lake Bito has a total area of 115 hectares covering Villa Imelda, Danao, Liwayway, Romualdez, Maya and Pongon in MacArthur, and Rizal and Cantarung in Javier. But the 47 ha occupied by fish pens and cages are “way more than the 10-percent limit set by the fisheries code,” Granali said.
She said the owners of several houses built along the lake throw their wastes, including feces, into the water. The volume of domestic wastes, as well as human and animal feces, depleted the oxygen in the water, triggering the fishkills, she said.
The BFAR official, however, acknowledged that during the site inspection, traces of oil and grease were found on the lake waters and might have come from the dredging machines of Nicua. “But I am making myself clear that we are not focusing on the mining issue because there are other factors that we have to consider,” she said.
Ragas said Nicua had put in place measures to prevent any contamination and adverse effects on the environment. Any traces of oil and grease from the machines and equipment are scooped and placed in containers, he said.
“We have to put them in an impounding area that will not flow back to the soil. What we do is collect them using our oil disposal system by putting them in containers, drums actually. So far, we have collected two drums of used oil in the past two years,” he added.
Rehabilitation
While the fishkill was an “unfortunate event,” the Nicua official said the company’s operations would not have caused it since its mining site is about 400 meters below Lake Bito. He said the firm had been rehabilitating the mine site in Barangay Pongon, a rice-producing village.
He claimed that of the 75 ha of land covered by Nicua, 25 ha were planted with palay using organic fertilizers. Land from the mined sites was compacted and leveled for at least 90 days to bring back the nutrients. Palay would then be planted where only organic fertilizers were used.
The first harvest early this year yielded 120 cavans of palay, which the company employees consumed, Ragas said. Nicua has hired 400 local residents.
Normando Magus, 62, who owns a hectare of land in Barangay San Pedro, is now tilling the mined areas with palay. “I enjoy it here. I am assured of a daily income,” he said.
Ragas said he was still optimistic that the mining firm and the fisherfolk would “peacefully coexist.”
But that appears to be far from the minds of those affected by the fishkills. They want no less than compensation as well as stoppage of the mining operation.
Cabias vowed that his group would never stop its protest. “We are doing this not only for us but for our children and their future children. We do not welcome any mining operations. It will cause the death of the Lake Bito which has been our source of income for years now.”