18,000 sticks of dynamite abandoned in Chinese mine in Mindanao

ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat – About 18,000 sticks of dynamite were seized by police and military authorities from an abandoned mining site in the hinterlands of Bagumbayan town here on Saturday, police said.

Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, Sultan Kudarat police director, said residents discovered the explosives in an abandoned mining site of Ippo China Mining Company in Barangay Saripinang.

Residents alerted the police of their discovery but authorities are appealing to farmers who reportedly took custody of some of the dynamite.

“I appeal to the farmers to surrender the dynamites in their possession, this is dangerous,” Supiter told the Inquirer.

“Mere possession of these dynamites is a crime offense and no bail bond recommended for violators,” he added.

Supiter said about 60 boxes, each containing 300 pieces of explosives, were recovered. Police and bomb experts also found chemicals used for making explosives in a laboratory.

He said the 57th Infantry Battalion and personnel from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) accompanied the police in the retrieval operation.

The Inquirer learned from residents that Korean or Chinese nationals have been mining in the upland Sitio Kaloloy for copper and gold.

“We have been hearing blasts up there, there were mining activities in Sitio Kaloloy, but it seems they have stopped operation the past week,” Andy Roquero, a resident of Barangay Saripinang, told the Inquirer.

He said state of the art mining equipment, dump trucks and excavation equipment were brought there in the past.

Roquero said residents there feared landslides and floods because the mining site was located in the upland village.

Mining operations in Sitio Kaloloy started in 2012./rga