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PNoy orders probe on Compostela Valley landslide — Lacierda


President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday ordered an investigation on the landslide that hit a small-scale mining site in Pantukan town, Compostela Valley that killed 25 people and left about a hundred others missing.
 
“The President has ordered an investigation,” Aquino’s spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a text message.
 
Lacierda said Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo will be going to Compostela Valley on Friday to monitor the situation and confer with local government officials.
 
At a press briefing earlier in the day, Lacierda said the incident was ‘totally unacceptable’ as the local government units have been warned about the hazards of living and mining in the area as early as April last year.
 
“There will be an investigation and, of course, there will be some accountability,” he said.
 
He said Robredo, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin had a meeting with local officials during the Holy Week last year where they were presented a geohazard map of the area.
 
The local government officials were categorically informed that there were already fissures in the ridges in the particular area and strongly warned that they have to evacuate the residents in those areas.
 
The local government, however, failed to evacuate the residents because of difficulty of reaching the area.
 
“Based on the search and rescue (people), it will take a number of hours to go there because the area is, I understand, is filled with ravines and ridges,” Lacierda said.
 
“The difficulty of reaching it is very, substantially, very difficult and it is a reason that they pose. But, again, it is not enough for us to accept that (reasoning) especially when lives are lost,” he added.
 
“The responsibility of evacuating or doing a forced evacuation is with the local government officials. But, having this thing happened, this is totally unacceptable.”
 
The DENR also suspended the environmental compliance certificates of the small-scale mining operations in the area last April 19, 2011 but the mining persisted up to this day, he said.
 
Lacierda admitted that evacuation of the residents in danger areas requires the political will of the local officials.
 
“Ang problema sa local government units is that these are also constituents,” he said. Earlier in the day, no less than Compostela Valley Governor Arthur Uy admitted that there was a ban on residential construction near the area and residents have also been forewarned due to bad weather conditions since mid-December last year. "Hindi natin pinapayagan... pero napakalayo ng lugar at mahirap i-monitor kung may bumabalik na mga miner doon ... I want to talk to the mayor bakit nakabalik ang minero," Uy said in a separate interview on dzBB radio. "Since Dec. 16 may advisory tayo sa lahat na minahan to vacate the area," he said. "Some people are really hardheaded and sneaked back despite our warnings."
 
Lacierda said aside from the military personnel conducting search and rescue operations in the area, the DENR also sent a geological assessment team to ensure the safety of the search and rescue teams.
 
He added the Department of Social Welfare and Development is also going to assess the situation.  — RSJ, GMA News        
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