Mayor, cops disperse protesters in Cagayan town

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Tension gripped the coastal town of Gonzaga in Cagayan on April 30 when the mayor and his armed police escorts stopped a rally against black sand mining in three villages there.

Mayor Carlito Pentecostes allegedly warned participants against holding the rally, and supposedly slapped a protester, Romeo Bayudan, as the group convened inside the compound of Saint Anthony Academy  in Barangay (village) Paradise, said Wilimer Sunio, president of the Bantangan-Calayan-Laban ti Mina, a people’s organization.

The mayor also reportedly smashed the digital camera of another protester, Rochel Garma, as she documented the confrontation.

Sought for comment, Pentecostes admitted that he confronted the rally group and had shattered Garma’s camera, but he denied slapping Bayudan.

“I am the father of this town and I am doing everything I can to bring what is for the good of my people. I am not used to having rallies in my town, so it is also normal for one to get upset and in the process, say or do things that may be inappropriate,” he said in a telephone interview.

According to Sunio, about 5,000 residents from the towns of Santa Ana, Santa Teresita, Gonzaga, Buguey, Aparri, Camalaniugan, Lallo, Gattaran and Baggao signed up to attend the Saturday rally, which was aimed at condemning the black sand mining in the northern coastal villages of Cagayan.

The group alleged that the provincial government had issued small-scale mining permits to two Chinese firms, Huaxia Mining and Trading Corp. and Lianxing Stone Carving Corp., without consulting the affected communities.

Bantangan-Calayan-Laban ti Mina claimed that the government has tolerated the magnetite sand operations of the two companies despite evidence of violations.

“The law mandates that only manual labor shall be used in small-scale mining, but these companies are using heavy equipment. They have also disregarded the rule that no mining shall be conducted 100 meters away from public and private infrastructure,” Sunio said.

He said the group had asked Pentecostes for a permit to stage the rally but the latter refused, saying that the grounds cited by the group for staging the rally were baseless.

As the group converged at the school compound on Saturday, the mayor accosted them, backed by private bodyguards and about 100 policemen.

“He berated the participants, and told them not to push through with the rally,” Sunio said, quoting witnesses, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal.

Garma said she took pictures of the confrontation between Pentecostes and the rally organizers when one of the mayor’s bodyguards grabbed her camera. Reports said the mayor hurled the camera, shattering it.

“The mayor accosted me for not having asked his permission before I took the photos. I feel so bad because I bought that camera from my earnings [as an overseas Filipino worker] in Israel,” Garma said.

Pentecostes said he called Garma and the protesters to a dialogue after the commotion, where he apologized for his acts. He also promised to replace Garma’s broken camera.  Melvin Gascon, Inquirer Northern Luzon