Government is Accountable for Mining Disasters

Barely two weeks ago, in the aftermath of a landslide in Masara, Compostela Valley that killed 24 and injured more, we, the Alyansa Tigil Mina, asked, “Why are mining operations permitted to continue at the risk of the communities living adjacent to their operations?”

With 14 miners now trapped beneath the earth in Itogon, Benguet, we ask, “Is the MGB unable to monitor any mine, working or abandoned? Is it unable to secure the welfare of the people who live and work around these sites? Is it good for anything besides brokering deals for the mining industry?”

We ask this because the trapped miners were working an abandoned mine of Benguet Mining Corporation when the rains flooded in. It is common knowledge that the miners of Itogon make their living “illegally” in the tunnels abandoned by Benguet Mining – abandoned but still controlled by the corporation. Since the area’s small miners are unable to obtain access to these places legally or set up their own Minahang Bayan due to Benguet’s ownership, they eke out a living in what Benguet Mining left behind.

Abandoned mines dot the countryside, and are serious hazards to life and health. There is a tremendous disagreement between the DENR-MGB and NGOs on just how many abandoned mines there are in the Philippines. NGO numbers place the count at over 800 while the MGB insists that there are only seven major abandoned mines – collectively known as “The Dirty Seven” for their levels of pollution.

Yet, even with these seven accepted and identified abandoned mines – there has been next to no action taken to clean them up or otherwise rehabilitate them. The Bagacay Mine in Eastern Samar is the only one with funding set aside for rehabilitation, funding sourced from the World Bank.
Bagacay Mine is so toxic that an independent assessment in 2001 found local concentrations of arsenic, lead, mercury and other metals were of high enough levels to threaten wildlife in and around the abandoned site. In its own assessment in 2005 the MGB found a build up of acid mine drainage in the area, as well as dilapidated structures – tailings dams that could fail and release flood the environment with toxic sludge. All this, and the mine has been abandoned since 1992. That is sixteen years of inaction in the face of a toxic threat.

How can we trust the MGB to do anything correctly when it fails so publicly? It cannot safeguard communities in geohazard areas, nor can it secure abandoned mines or hold companies responsible for their rehabilitation. Yet we allow the MGB to not only set the standards for every new mine in the country but to invite more mining. The MGB has not shown that it has the resources or even the willpower to conduct its regulatory functions of mining in the Philippines, and it is jeopardizing the safety of Filipinos across the nation.

edit: this statement was picked up by GMA News and posted on their website "Group blames government for mine site deaths"