Digging for a future: The struggle of a mining family from Camarines Norte

The start of classes has always been a struggle, both for parents who must pay for tuition fees and for students who once more give up their summer for a life among the books. But in the municipality of Jose Panganiban in Camarines Norte, the struggle is much harder.

Many of Jose Panganiban’s poorer citizens turn to dangerous and unregulated gold mining. For most, it’s a way to put food on the table. For 16-year-old Ricky Romero, it’s a sacrifice so his younger siblings can stay in school.

Hard day’s work

For the documentary “Tinubog na Pangarap,” “Reporter’s Notebook” host Jiggy Manicad visited Jose Panganiban to meet the Romero family. “Kaliwa’t kanan ‘yung mga gilingan ng ginto,” he observed while walking along a dirt path lined with trees. “Dito nila pino-proseso ‘yung mga batong nakuha nila.”

To get to the mine from their house, Ricky and his father, Mang Eddie, must hike down a steep and slippery slope. “Kapag nagkamali ka, deretso ka sa tunnel,” he warns Jiggy. The tunnel he speaks of is a tight cave that they carved out of the mountainside. Inside the tunnel, Ricky and his father squat and hammer away, chipping at the rock.

Their only equipment? A flashlight and mallet.

“Mahirap din po,” says Ricky. “Hindi lahat ng bato, may ginto… pipiliin mo pa.” Ricky only reached the Grade 2 in school, having left to help his father in the mines. Three days of work will get their family somewhere between P1,000 and P2,000.

“Alam naman po naming delikado pinapasukan namin. Mahirap po ang trabahong ito. Nakakapagod, pero kaunti ang nakukuha,” Mang Eddie says, shaking his head. “Ilan estudyante ko? Apat ‘yun. Kulang pa po [‘yung kinikita] sa amin.”

A team effort?

Mark, Ricky’s nine-year-old brother, does his share of work, too. He visits a dumpyard where other miners throw away scrap rocks, and sorts through it to find bits of gold they may have missed. Mark makes two trips up and down the mountain for each day of work.

Unlike Ricky, Mark is still in school. What he, his brother, and his father earn helps Mark stay there. “Ang pangrap ko po sa kanya, maging doktor,” says Ricky. “Na ipagpatuloy niya pag-aaral niya.”

What if Mark no longer wishes to continue with his education? Ricky answers firmly: “Hindi po kami papayag. Mag-aral muna siya.”
One of the Romero family’s middle children, Raymond, hauls the sacks of rocks to the gilingan, or processing areas. He operates the machines and adds mercury, a toxic chemical needed for the process, without using any gloves.

Giovanni Soledad of the International Labour Organization’s Child Labor Programme, says the situation in Camarines Norte is worrisome. “Ang number one na hazardous na activity sa child labor, in term of casualties, ay mining talaga,” he says. “Kung tinanggap na nilang ganoon ‘yung sitwasyon nila...nakakalungkot iyon.”

He adds, “Sa tingin ko, ang susi ay ma-address [ng gobyerno] ‘yung kawalan o kakulangan sa marangal na hanapbuhay ng magulang.”

While Raymond hasn’t gotten sick yet, the fatigue makes it hard for him to attend school. “Napapagod na ako, kaya bihira na akong pumasok,” he says. Unlike his brothers, his goal is not necessarily education but the family’s short-term survival.

The rocks that Mark collected and Raymond processed for three days yielded one gram of gold, or P800. “Para po kay Mark, pambayad sa school bukas,” says their mother Elena. Nine-year-old Mark helped pick out notebooks and pencils for his three siblings, too.

First day
On the first day of school, Elena and the kids walked to school. Their P800, meant for enrollment, was cut down to P300 because they needed to buy rice and milk for the family. “Papakiusapan naming ‘yung principal,” she says.

After an hour of Elena fixing the paperwork, her kids were allowed to go to class. Mark bounced into his Grade 3 classroom with his bright yellow backpack filled with new notebooks and school supplies.

Meanwhile, Ricky is still in the mines, working so his younger siblings won’t have to quit school like he did. “Wala po akong pangarap,” he tells “Reporter’s Notebook” with a sad smile. “Tatanda na po akong ganito. Mahirap po.” Each dig he makes underground is step to dig his family out of poverty.

For Mark, whose tiny shoulders bear the family’s hopes, he is determined to finish school – no matter long it takes and no matter how hard he has to work. “Kung papipiliin ka, anong mas gusto mo: school o trabaho?” Jiggy asked the young boy.

“School po,” Mark replied. —Cristina Tantengco/CM, GMA News