Marcos, South Cotabato execs urged to crack whip on destructive mining
KORONADAL CITY—A farmer’s group has asked President Marcos and South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. to crack the whip against the illegal and highly destructive “banlas” mining in the province as two miners allegedly involved in the illegal activity got swept away by raging floodwaters on Monday in Sitio Campo Kilot, Barangay Pula Bato in Tampakan town.
This brought to six the number of illegal miners killed in the banlas site since 2012, said Jose Sebua, president of the Campo Kilot Farmers Association, in an online interview Tuesday.
The banlas site is within the mining tenement of Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), developer of the controversial Tampakan project, touted as the largest undeveloped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia.
Sebua, who once worked with SMI as an environmental superintendent, called on the company and the local officials of Tampakan to go after the illegal banlas miners as they had been destroying the environment and putting the health of the community at risk.
Banlas or sluice mining, a highly destructive mining method, involves the pouring of large amounts of water using high-pressure water jets on a mountain’s surface to loosen the soil and rocks and extract the gold ore, and then pan them with mercury.
He suggested the establishment of a government security detachment in the banlas site to deter residents from engaging in the illegal mining activity.
Sebua also called on the officials to build the long-overdue farm-to-market road to give farmers better livelihood and reduce their dependence on banlas mining.
Polluted river
“Our rivers are now brown, polluted, and contaminated with mercury due to the illegal banlas mining operations. This has endangered the health of our residents, destroyed aquatic life, and is now damaging the rivers and Lake Buluan downstream,” he said.
Lake Buluan straddles the towns of Lutayan in Sultan Kudarat and Buluan in Maguindanao del Sur. Sebua said that before the water from the banlas site in Campo Kilot ends in Lake Buluan, it traverses the Topland River in Koronadal City.
Police Col. Samuel Cadungon, South Cotabato provincial police director, said the victims—Richard Sumali, 31, a resident of Purok 7, Barangay Sinapulan, Columbio, Sultan Kudarat; and Junrey Samling, 35, a resident of Purok Kawayan B, Barangay Danlag in Tampakan town of South Cotabato—both died from drowning while crossing the rampaging water of Pula Bato River. Their companion, Jay-ar Samling, 39, a farmer in Purok Kawayan B, survived.
Guerrilla operation
Cadungon said the Tampakan police station received the distressed call at 4:30 p.m. and immediately went to the area. The team went back with the bodies at the barangay hall of Pula Bato about four hours later due to the bad road condition, he added.
Sebua said that the victims were killed while conducting banlas mining operations.
“The victims were doing guerrilla-type banlas mining that has become rampant in the area,” he said in an online interview.
On July 27, another alleged banlas miner was killed, bringing to six the number of individuals killed due to banlas operations in the same area since 2012, Sebua said.
Tampakan Mayor Leonard Escobillo said the local government unit, along with the police and military, had raided two weeks ago the banlas site, where they confiscated various mining equipment, including high-density polyethylene pipes of various sizes, two large sluice boxes, three screens and other mining paraphernalia.
Escobillo said he would issue an executive order for the establishment of Task Force Banlas in the area.
Tamayo earlier said it was “hard to lick banlas mining with the remote location of the site,” saying that with the accessibility of communications, those engaged in it would know when raiding teams were coming and would scamper away even before authorities could reach the place.
Last month, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Region 12 raided a banlas site at Sitio Datal Saub, Barangay Datal Blao in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, which is also a part of the mining tenement of SMI.
SMI’s Tampakan project has been hampered by the open-pit mining ban imposed by South Cotabato since 2010 and the opposition from the local Catholic Church.
