Zambales residents stop trucks loaded with nickel from going to port

Residents of Sta. Cruz town in Zambales in Central Luzon on Tuesday barricaded a national highway to prevent mining company's haulers from bringing nickel ores to port.

No truck haulers were able to get through the human barricade on the highway, Benito Molino, MD, chairperson of the  Concerned Citizens of Sta. Cruz (CCOS) told GMA News Online, and that officials of the Zambales Diversified Metals Corporation-D.M.Consunji Inc (ZDMC-DMCI) agreed to have a dialogue Wednesday afternoon.

The CCOS blamed mining operations in the province for  the thick reddish-brown mud-flood that covered streets in some barangays of Sta. Cruz in the wake of Typhoon Lando in October last year.

Affected residents claimed the mud-flood came from destroyed or failing ponds of the four leading mining companies in the town. Torrential rains from Lando caused flooding as it barreled through the Luzon landmass.

Moreover, they believe the mud-flood came from the settling ponds of the Zambales Diversified Metals Corp., the Benguet Corp. Nickel Mines Inc., the Eramen Minerals Inc., and the LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc.

Molino told GMA News Online that a mining operations ban was temporarily lifted in late 2015. Last week, the ZDMC-DMCI resumed its operations, forcing the residents to barricade the highway.

"Ang pinag-uusapan dito ay karapatan sa buhay. Sinisira ng mining firms  ang kabuhayan ng mga tao. May naitala kaming mga fish kill, pagkasira ng mga pananim dahil sa mapulang putik mula sa mga minahan. Dalawa na ang naiulat na namatay dahil sa letospirosis mula sa tubig-baha na naiipon sa mga apektadong barangay," he said.

In an interview on Oct. 19, 2015,  Zambales Governor Hermogenes Ebdane denied claims that mining ponds were the source of the flood and instead blamed the releases of excess water from huge dams in northern Luzon.

On October 20, Molino called on the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) director Jasareno to order an investigation into the samples from the flood and the possible impacts of the mud to the health of the people in affected barangays.

On Oct 22, a team from the Environment Management Bureau-Region 3 went to Sta Cruz to investigate.

"But the MGB yielded the same conclusion that Governor Ebdane had: 'The reddish-brown mud-flood last year was not from the mining ponds'," Molino said.

Meanwhile, Jaybee Garganera, national coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina, said:  “This is not the first time that we see mining's worsening impacts ... causing further damage to communities and their sources off livelihood."

He cited the Marcopper disasters in 1993 and 1996 in Marinduque, and the Philex mine spill in 2012." — LBG, GMA News