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Corporate mining hazardous, unsafe -- Benguet workers

(First of two parts)

BAGUIO CITY (Nov. 18) — Workers and peasants in Benguet’s mining communities attest that mining is inherently hazardous to them and to people living near mine sites and it remains disastrous to the environment.

This claim counters the statement of the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) which is currently hosting its annual mining safety and environment conference. MGB Dir. Horacio Ramos said in the weekly Kapihan that the Philippine mining industry has perfected safety in the mine site.

This year’s mining safety and environment week is highlighted by a mining caravan, sports competitions in golf, bowling, tennis, an industry parade and field competitions involving mine workers. A mine safety demonstration by Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation (LCMCo) displays mine workers’ safety consciousness.

Unreported accidents

Safety, however, is almost impossible in an industry like mining which has been considered by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as the most unsafe human activity.

“The fact that mining entails workers to go deep down into the heart of the earth to get the minerals by blasting and processing these further with chemicals makes the industry hazardous compared to any other,” Ramos told the media in a press conference. He quips, however that the difference lies in competent implementation of safety rules.

In another press conference, James Tulipa of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)-Cordillera, said that mining companies in the region employ deceiving tactics to evade records of accidents in the mine sites. Tulipa elaborated that workers who figure in accidents in the workplace are either made to sign their daily time record or are assigned as janitors at the manager’s change-room or lunchroom to make it appear that no accident ever occurred.

“There is an internal competition among departments in the same mine site because the company gives incentives for a zero-accident record which includes cash bonuses for the workers and the department head and a possible promotion for the mining boss”, Tulipa explained.

Tulipa used to work with the Itogon-Suyoc Mines, Inc. (ISMI), LCMCo, and as contract miner of Benguet Corporation’s (BC) Balatoc Partnership Mines. He led the ISMI mine-workers’ union in the late 90s and worked among the mine workers of Philex Mining Corporation (Philex) as a trade union organizer.

Tulipa said that both Philex and Lepanto, the only remaining profitable mines in Benguet, employ similar tactics of not reporting work-related accidents that mostly involve rock and timber fall in the workplace. He blamed the shift from conventional to mechanized mining methods that bring about more accidents in the mines. He cited a case of a heavy equipment operator in Philex who suffocated because the ore gave in on the huge load-haul-and-dump machine he was operating. Another worker was crushed to the wall by huge equipment.

Onerous partnership

Nida Legazpi, chairperson of the Itogon Inter-barangay Alliance (IIB-A), refuted BC’s earlier claims that its contract mining is safe. She revealed that those used by small-scale miners in Balatoc are actually abandoned, rotting tunnels. Rotten timber, according to Legazpi, emits a foul-smelling gas that causes deaths among small-scale miners.

“Immediate ventilation is needed that miners run outside the tunnel for oxygen,” Legazpi explains. She said that the gas is so potent that it can put out a lighted candle or miner’s carbide lamps. Legazpi laments that more deaths occur these days because miners no longer use traditional non-electronic lighting device.

Legazpi also reported fatal accidents involving contract miners that were not reported by the BC. Worse, Legazpi said, these private miners are not covered by any medical and security system and that the company does not extend any benefit to them.

“Wala sa usapan ang safety, dahil ang pinag-uusapan lang sa kontrata ay ang 60-40 sharing scheme,” (Safety was not included in the agreement because the mining contract only dealt with the sharing arrangements) Legazpi said, adding that the arrangement is onerous at the expense of the miners who have to bear all production costs and risk losing their lives in the mine site. “Ang pabor ay sa kumpanya lahat pumupunta,” she quips.

Century-old plunder

Itogon has been hosting corporate mining operations which BC started at the turn of the 20th century. According to IIB-A, a century-old plunder of Itogon’s mineral and forest resources, including that of water which is much utilized in the extraction of gold, copper and silver has left a devastated environment. IIB-A demands that mining companies rehabilitate mined-out areas and those resources be given back to the people.

Today only Philex is gainfully mining Itogon’s silver, copper and gold. Like BC, Philex also gained the reputation of devastating a large portion of agricultural lands when its open pit where back-filling materials are being taken scraped the whole Camaring mountain in Sitio Alang in Brgy. Camp 3. Its mine effluents and silt find their way into the Agno River rendering the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam in San Manuel heavily silted in just two years.

Continuing disaster beyond Mankayan

Mankayan peasants meanwhile said that LCMCo has been causing irreversible environmental damage not only in Mankayan but also towns along the Abra River. Sinking, they say, continues to plague the towns. Sinking in Colalo has not stopped.

“Ti sinking ti Colalo ket saan pay a simmardeng,” declares Albert Diego, Dangayan dagiti Umili a Maseknan iti Mankayan (DAMAYAN) spokesperson, saying that even residents in the Poblacion are wary of an inevitable disaster due to Lepanto’s operations. Diego recounts that 68 years of corporate mining operations has devastated Mankayan. It has taken its toll on the land, water and farms affecting not only Mankayan but also up to downstream Abra and Ilocos Sur provinces.

Sinking in recent years has rendered houses totally damaged and water table lowered that gardeners could not plant until the rainy season.

No assistance came from Lepanto except for stop-gap measures which Diego termed “pang-kursunada laeng”.

Diego also said that the Tohking exhaust raise which Lepanto reopened recently in time with its expansion operations at the Teresa ore body in upper Mankayan emitted fumes from the underground tunnels.

This pollution is not controlled even with the scrubber machine that Lepanto installed to clean the fumes.

“Haan a mabalin, haanmi a kayat. Isardengda koma,” Diego said of Lepanto’s expansion project fearing that the four towns affected by the operations will be totally damaged if corporate mining operations are not halted.

Animals are reportedly dying of water from the tailings dam or animals getting sick of fumes from the exhaust tunnel.

“Inggana itatta ket laklak-amen mi dayta a problema,” Diego pointed out.

MAQUITACDG’s (Mankayan, Quirini, Tadian, Cervantes Danggayan a Gunglo) Ambino Padawi supported Diego saying that expanding Lepanto’s operations will destroy the environment of several other towns aside from the four adjacent towns of Mankayan in Benguet, Quirino and Cervantes in Ilocos Sur and Tadian in Mountain Province. His group wants to stop the destruction wrought by Lepanto’s operations so that peasants can continue living on what has been left of their silted farms and polluted water sources.

The MACQUITACDG is an alliance of communities living along the Abra River from Benguet down to Ilocos Sur.# Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

Next week: occupational hazards in mining

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