Priest hits clandestine ‘small scale’ mining in Nueva Vizcaya

BAYOMBONG, Philippines - The Parish priest of Quezon town here scored the operations of independent mineral prospectors who are claiming that they are only small scale miners. The miners, according the Fr. Emil Ibera, are mostly locals and some transients coming from Central Luzon and the neighboring province of Benguet. Ibera said there have been reports that armed men are sometimes seen in the area who operate “like mercenaries.” “It looks like these men are being hired by financiers to scout for areas that already have small scale mining activities, once an area is found then they terrorize the residents, once fear is sowed, the people will submit to the whims of financiers,” he said Small scale mining operations have been going on in Quezon town particularly in Runruno village for many years now. The area is said to be rich in manganese and there have been reports that the river flowing downstream is already contaminated with mercury. “I have received reports from concerned residents that there are Chinese and local financiers involved in these operations and they are the ones supplying mercury to the miners, where else can these people (miners) get their supply of this environmentally destructive substance but from the financiers,” he said. The clandestine small mining operations in Quezon town and many other places in Nueva Vizcaya have been largely ignored or disregarded by local authorities who are suspected to be in cahoots with the financiers. The operators, according to the activist priest, can even circumvent the law by applying for several patches of mineral rich lands in order for them not to be listed as large scale miners and to escape paying higher taxes. “They are seasoned financiers of this kind of business, they know exactly what to do to escape liabilities from the law they even have a route where their heavy equipments can pass without being noticed,” he said, pointing to the back-road routes via sitio Burburnay in Tappaya village exiting through Amballo village in Bagabag town. Nueva Vizcaya is a mineral rich province and host to a multi-billion peso Australian mining project operated by Melbourne based company, OceanaGold Philippines (OGP). OGP is presently the first and only awardee of a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) in the country. The foreign mining firm operates in Didipio village in Kasibu and has renamed a hill, where open pit mining is being carried out, to Dinkidi Hill. Dinkidi, according to what the locals in the area heard, is an Australian aborigine term which roughly means “the real thing,” or something that connotes abundance of mineral deposits in the area. However, there are also reports that the amount of mineral deposits in Quezon town can be three times larger than that of Didipio. - Floro Taguinod, GMANews.TV