18 Chinese illegal miners arrested

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TUGUEGARAO CITY—Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested 18 Chinese on charges that they were conducting illegal mining operations in a coastal village in Aparri town.

Lawyer Manuel George Jularbal, NBI Ilocos director, said the Chinese were employees of Huaxia Trading and Mining Corp. who were found extracting magnetite sand along the coastal villages of Aparri despite prohibitions.

Fifteen of them are undocumented and do not have working permits, Jularbal said.

The NBI agents, members of the Task Force on Illegal Black Sand Mining in Cagayan province, raided on Aug. 1 the Huaxia compound in Barangay Paddaya, where the Chinese-owned firm was constructing its mineral processing plant, said Mario Ancheta, acting Cagayan Valley director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

“We issued them a warning before, which was followed by a stop order. But they pushed through with their [black sand extraction] operations in Dodan and Paddaya [villages],” he said.

The Chinese have been detained at the Bureau of Immigration office in Aparri while illegal mining charges are being prepared against them.

Authorities also took custody of mining equipment used by the firm, which included its magnetite extractor and separator, a conveyor machine and several water pumps and generator sets.

Magnetite sand is used to separate sulfur coal or iron in the steel industry.

Black sand poaching has affected the coastal communities of Aparri, Buguey and Gonzaga towns, as well as areas along the riverbed of Rio Grande de Cagayan in Lal-lo and Camalaniugan towns.

Groups led by the Catholic Church have complained that the province’s magnetite resources have been smuggled out of the country through Port Irene in Santa Ana town, with the use of allegedly questionable permits issued by the national and local governments.

Environment groups have also questioned the issuance of small-scale mining and quarrying permits to various Chinese and Taiwanese firms despite opposition from affected residents.

The Federation of Environmental Advocates of Cagayan, a people’s organization, also raised concern over the unabated entry of illegal Chinese, supposedly through the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport in Santa Ana.

The Inquirer sought Eva Antiporda, alien control officer of the Bureau of Immigration, for comment but she did not take calls and respond to text messages.

In Ilocos Sur province, the NBI joined a task force of environmental protection agencies to enforce a cease and desist order imposed by the MGB in June against magnetite firms operating in San Vicente town.

The government was criticized last month by church groups for its apparent inability to shut down black sand mining operations there.

Sister Lilian Carranza, director of  Nueva Segovia Social Action Commission, who gathered the group, had written Ilocos Sur

Gov. Ryan Luis Singson, urging him to impound the equipment and stockpiled magnetite at quarry sites and to impose a moratorium on mining activities at “the soonest possible time” in Ilocos Sur. With a report from Leoncio Balbin Jr., Inquirer N. Luzon