BUTUAN CITY—Residents in the mining town of Loreto on Dinagat Island staged a protest as Environment Secretary Regina Lopez arrived Saturday to consult with stakeholders in the wake of her decision to close a large number of mining operations.
Protestors flocked to Balanghay hotel to express their sentiments on the closure orders, which affect seven mines in Dinagat Island province and another seven in Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur provinces.
On Dinagat Island, the mining companies closed were AAMPHIL Natural Resources Exploration; Oriental Synergy Mining Corp.; SinoSteel Philippines HY Mining Corp.; Kromico Inc.; Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corp.; Wellex Mining Corp.; and Libjo Mining Corp.
Those ordered closed in Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte were ADNAMA Mining Resources Corp.; Claver Mineral Development Corp.; Hinatuan Mining Corp.; CTP Construction and Mining Corp.; Carrascal Nickel Corp.; Marcventures Mining and Development Corp.; and Platinum Group Metals Corp.
The consultative meeting are part of government efforts to make sure that the affected workers will be employed as the closure of mining operations will throw almost 20,000 people out of jobs.
Lopez said her plan is to transition the towns from mining operations into ecotourism destinations that would benefit the town more.
Lopez said the Caraga region is the mining capital of the Philippines, yet the people there are the poorest in the country.
Lopez said it was ironic that Caraga is a beautiful region that is exploited by mining companies that contribute only five percent of their income to host communities and take the rest out fo the country.
“That’s what happens when you mine, you invest here, 95 percent of the profits go out of the local community, that’s why they are still poor,” Lopez said.
Lopez, during the forum at the Loreto town gymnasium, presented her plan on how she plans to transform the mining towns into eco-tourism destinations and how that would be made possible with the rehabilitation fund from mining companies.
Lopez said that under the scheme, mine workers would be employed in the rehabilitation of mined out areas.
Lopez said that in mine site re-vegetation alone, 200 hectares of land can employ 1,000 workers and the estimated income from this rehabilitation program is P12 million.
But some residents said Lopez lacks an understanding of the quality of the soil in the mountains.
Alfie Guc-ong from barangay Esperanza, where mining operations have already stopped, said that Lopez’s plans to plant carrots, napier and bamboo grass would be impossible because of the quality of the soil.
Jason Tanor, another resident, said that even if they would use fertilizers, the growth would be very minimal.
“Where would we buy the fertilizer? Even coconut does not grow there,” Tanor said.
Melchor Manlunas, 71, who spent all his life on the island said the only thing they can do is to fish, but that also is very difficult because of the big waves in the area.
Kleindel Estrada said that he was supposed to be regularized by a mining company but because of the closure, he is unsure where to get the money for his family.
“Mining is the only life here,” Manlunas said.
Asked if there were any tourism destinations in their town, they said there was only the beach, and that the town had only one lodging house, which is usually empty.
“There are no tourists here, except during town fiesta,” Tanor said.
Halfway through Lopez’s presentation, people started to walk out of the venue, losing interest in the proposed action plan that would helped them move from mining to ecotourism.