Town tells miners: Keep off Mt. Pulag

COOLER ON TOP The summit of Mt. Pulag has reached far more freezing temperatures than Baguio City and Benguet province, dropping to negative 8 degrees Celsius on Jan. 12, according to trekkers who visited one of the country’s richest biodiversity areas. EZRA ESPIRITU/CONTRIBUTOR

BAGUIO CITY—Officials of Kabayan town at the foot of Mt. Pulag have warned pocket miners to keep off one of the country’s richest biodiversity areas as part of tightening conservation efforts.

Kabayan Mayor Faustino Aquisan on Monday said a task force composed of policemen and local government employees would inspect the mine sites discovered last year in the villages of Balay and Gusaran, and evict pocket miners operating there.

“We discovered the new mines when the pocket miners began clearing portions of the forest in that part of

Mt. Pulag in October 2013. That was the first time I ordered the miners to stop. Had they not cut the trees, we would not have found the tunnels,” Aquisan said by telephone on Monday.

These are newly dug tunnels, he said.

Kabayan also serves as the doorway of outdoor enthusiasts who have been climbing Mt. Pulag to experience the mountain’s unique environment and dipping temperatures. Mt. Pulag straddles the towns of Kabayan, Bokod and Buguias in Benguet province, the town of Tinoc in Ifugao province and the town of Kayapa in Nueva Vizcaya province.

Most of the visitors are environmental advocates who have raised concern over reports of gardens and miners encroaching into the 11,500-hectare Mt. Pulag National Park, said Gov. Nestor Fongwan.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau issued cease-and-desist orders against small-scale miners last year, although the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) traced most of the activities around the upper Agno watershed, which is far from the park’s territory.

But Fongwan, who chairs the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board, said small-scale mining operated close to Mt. Pulag and had been concentrated in the villages of Balay and Gusaran in Kabayan.

Aquisan said the task force would inspect the discovered mine sites on Feb. 21.

“We have tried to close about a hundred other tunnels in other parts of town but many of those are prewar tunnels. There were times when miners did not need to dig too deep to find gold in these parts, so the tunnels are relatively shallow,” he said.

But protecting Mt. Pulag is more important, Aquisan said.

The miners, he said, often worked deep into the forests, so inspecting the tunnels would require local government personnel to hike and climb the mountain.

“We still have to monitor if the mining activities had stopped,” Fongwan said.

The governor requested the Army’s 50th Infantry Battalion, which has encamped at Naubanan village, to help guard the area. The soldiers were sent there as part of a joint agreement with the DENR to protect Mt. Pulag.

“The problem is that if the pocket miners pass through Gusaran village, the Army will not be able to see them [from where they are currently encamped],” Fongwan said.