Guerrilla-type mining has finally stopped in the gold-rich town of Magdiwang in Romblon’s Sibuyan Island as provincial officials shift efforts to provide alternative livelihood to about 1,000 mining-dependent families.
Gov. Eduardo Firmalo declared the end of small-scale mining on the island several months after a province-wide ban was imposed on all forms of metallic mining.
Small-scale mining had been rampant in Magdiwang, particularly in Barangays Ambulong, Ipil and Dulangan (whose name was derived from “dulang,” a wooden pan used to extract minerals).
The antimining campaign was backed by environmental and church groups, which had earlier reported spikes in mercury concentration (presently at 30,000-50,000 ng/m3) in the air and waters of Sibuyan.
Mercury exposure
Several Magdiwang residents were also reported to have developed skin rashes, respiratory tract and intestinal diseases, and hypertension, which were believed to have been caused by decades of exposure to mercury used in gold panning.
In May, health experts collected blood samples from the villagers and sent them to Japan for testing, according to Firmalo. However, he assured them that the diseases were not contagious.
Putting a stop to mining “was not that simple,” said Firmalo, who is also a doctor. “You have to give attention to it because people’s livelihood and health were at stake.”
Rodne Galicha of the Alyansa Tigil Mina, a nongovernment organization, confirmed that small-scale mining in Magdiwang had stopped.
Police deployment
This month, 30 policemen and 30 Army soldiers were deployed to guard protected areas in Sibuyan. They were also helping in the information drive about the ill effects of mercury, Senior Supt. Leo Tumolva, provincial police director, said.
Magdiwang Vice Mayor Denisa Repizo said that early this month, the operations of small-scale mining were dramatically “reduced by 50 percent” in Dulangan. Reports from other villages were still being finalized, she said.
Repizo is worried that although the 19 mining operators agreed to stop their activities, guerrilla-type mining might only move to the upland areas on the border of Magdiwang and San Fernando towns.
“They (police and Army) have to work double-time and devise strategies (to prevent miners from just moving away),” she said.
Entry of financiers
Small-scale mining in Sibuyan dates back to the Filipino-American War in the early 1900s, Firmalo said. Repizo said the industry in Magdiwang peaked sometime in 2005 with the entry of financiers from Manila and other provinces.
A mining worker earns from his shares, amounting to as low as P1,000 or as high as P20,000 a month, depending on the volume of minerals extracted, Repizo said.
In some parts of Magdiwang, schoolchildren washed ores in the river, while their parents burned the amalgam of gold and mercury (so the mercury evaporates in the air) inside their homes.
“(Magdiwang) remains to be one of the poorest despite its gold deposit. Perhaps because the system remains feudalistic and the landlords and financiers are the ones earning big,” Firmalo said.
Alternative livelihood
“You can no longer remove the mercury contamination. It will take years and billions (of money). Our approach now is preventing the situation from getting worse,” Firmalo said.
He expected the dislocation of poor families in the fifth-class municipality (annual income: P15 million-P25 million) following the ban on small-scale mining.
Recently, the provincial government sent a tractor to help improve farming in Magdiwang. It also distributed quails for the villagers to grow and taught them how to collect and process rubber from about 7,000 rubber trees in a forest area.
Next year, the provincial government is allocating fund for a massive project to recover mercury residues from the waterways.