Close Benguet Corp! — IIBA

3 MIN READ

By KIMBERLIE NGABIT-QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The Itogon Inter-Barangay Alliance (IIBA) welcomes the pronouncement of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Gina Lopez that Loakan, Antamok in Itogon, Benguet be a pilot Minahang Bayan area in the region as they reiterated their demand for the closure of Benguet Corporation mines and for its mining claims to be returned to the domain of the rightful indigenous people of Itogon.

Engr. Vergel Aniceto of IIBA was among the Itogon folk who met Lopez when she flew in to inspect the Liang River in Loakan, Antamok on February 3.

It can be recalled that mine silt leaked from Benguet Corporation’s old Antamok tailings pond polluting the Liang River in October last year.

While Aniceto welcomes the declaration of Lopez for a Minahang Bayan in Loakan, he was disappointed that the fate of Benguet Corporation was not discussed during the secretary’s short visit.

“It was as if Benguet Corporation got away again when the visit was supposed to determine the company’s fate given the environmental damage in its over one hundred years of operations caused,” he said.

Aniceto said they have been demanding for the closure of Benguet Corporation and the return of its mine claims to rightful Ibaloi owners. He said the recent leak at the Antamok tailings pond is but one of the many environmental harm the company’s mining operations caused.

He said that in Loakan alone more than 50 houses were destroyed when the ground sunk after the collapse of mine tunnels in the 1990s.

Lopez was also met by over 1,000 pocket miners at Loakan. She emphasized that only traditional small scale mining should be practiced in the Minahang Bayan. She said she will be back after six months to see if the pocket miners are able to mine responsibly.

Aniceto said the over 1,000 small scale miners who met Lopez made her realize that pocket mining is a major source of livelihood in the province.

“She was amazed to realize that even farmers engage in small scale mining and made her reconsider her earlier position on mining,” Aniceto said.

Aniceto explained that in an earlier dialogue with Lopez in Manila, she told them that all forms of mining is destructive to the environment. He said they tried to explain the pocket mining situation in Benguet but she was firm on her position against all forms of mining.

It can be recalled that the DENR declared a moratorium on the application of Minahang Bayan.

Lopez arrived around 8:00 AM on a chopper inspected the leak at the Antamok tailings pond and held a short dialogue with members of the Loakan-Itogon Pocket Miners Association and Antamok-Loakan Miners Association, according to Itogon Chief of Police Jeffrey Vicente. He said, the secretary left immediately after the brief talk with the pocket miners.

Lawyer Froilan Lawilao, the head of administration of Benguet Corporation, said declaring a Minahang Bayan was part of the mine rehabilitation plan of the company for the Antamok area. He said that a portion will also host an engineered sanitary landfill and another portion will be turned into an eco-tourism park.

“We have submitted our mine rehabilitation plan even before the Secretary’s pronouncement and we are just waiting for the decision of the MGB (Mines and Geosciences Bureau) if our plan is feasible,” Lawilao said.

Lawilao said they had no time to talk to the Secretary when she visited Antamok because she was busy talking to DENR officials and pocket miners. But he said they will have to wait for the official final order of the DENR. # nordis.net