"FIÈVRE DE L'OR" ... À MINDANAO !
En novembre 2012, quatre compagnies, qui sous couvert d’extraction
de sable et de gravier, cherchaient en réalité de l’or, ont vu leurs activités
stoppées.
Néanmoins, six mois plus tard l’on s’aperçoit que le problème
n’est toujours pas réglé.
L’extraction illégale se poursuit.
Dans cette région, proche de Cagayan de Oro, la teneur en
or est, comme dans la plupart des régions aurifères de l’archipel, de 5 grammes
d’or par mètre cube de sable déplacé. Essayez de vous rendre compte de l’impact
sur l’environnement ; il faut déplacer et filtrer 200 mètres cubes de terre,
boue, sable et gravier, pour récupérer un kilogramme de métal précieux.
La majorité des compagnies qui sont engagées dans cette
activité sont sous contrôle de nationaux Chinois et Coréens. Les locaux faisant
le sale boulot pour un salaire de misère.
Maintenant vouloir transformer ces mineurs philippins en
ouvriers employés dans des entreprises de fabrications de briques, part
certainement d’un bon sentiment.
A mon avis, un petit paramètre n’a certainement pas été
pris en compte par les autorités compétentes : ‘’La fièvre de l’or”, la
possibilité pour un de ces ouvriers de devenir riche du jour au lendemain en découvrant
un filon.
Chose qui ne risque pas de leur arriver dans la réalisation de briques.
Chose qui ne risque pas de leur arriver dans la réalisation de briques.
Pour ceux qui ne le sauraient pas, la rivière Iponan est
cette rivière qui arrose la ville de Iligan City, ville qui a été frappée par
une terrible catastrophe lors du passage d’un presque typhon nommé Sendong.
En décembre 2011, plus de 2.000 personnes ont perdu la
vie du fait des inondations provoquées par la crue soudaine, de nuit, des rivières de la région.
Il est prouvé que les activités illégales d’abattage des
arbres et d’extraction d’or ont été les principaux facteurs ayant entrainé
cette catastrophe.
AN
ENVIRONMENT group is optimistic that the greening of water at Iponan River two
weeks ago may be seen regularly as illegal mining operations in the upstream
have been slowly curbed.
Sulog, an
environment group, has been massively campaigning against the stoppage of
illegal mining operations in the upstream barangays of Iponan River.
Director
Orlando Ravanera, Sulog chair and regional director of the Cooperative
Development Authority (CDA), said the river will gradually become clear once
the full implementation of the law against illegal mining will be sustained.
Ravanera said
the improvement of the Iponan River is the result of the group’s full
implementation of Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and Environmental
Management Bureau (EMB) agreement to temporarily stop the issuance of
Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECCs) to stakeholders that applied for
quarry while the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) waits for the complete signing
by the 13 local agencies.
The
stakeholders who are expected to sign the MOA are Sulog, the MGB, local
government offices of Cagayan de Oro, Opol and Iligan, EMB, Department of
Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), 4th infantry
Battalion, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Bureau of Immigration (BI),
and the Philippine Air Force.
Ravanera said
City Mayor Vicente Emano signed the MOA in April.
The group is
expecting Iligan City mayor Laurence Lluch Cruz and the 4th ID to sign the MOA
to fully implement the agreement.
The MOA
signing came after a series of raids has been conducted, resulting in the
arrest of several Chinese nationals found to be illegally extracting gold and
working without authorization.
Ravanera said
there is no sustainable mining in Cagayan de Oro and the need to completely
shut down the illegal mining activities has been recommended.
He said
illegal mining is very impractical along the Iponan river stretch as it
destroys the surrounding mountains due to hydraulic, backhoes and open pit
mining processes that will likely result to siltation and brown-coloration of
water.
He said based
on the group’s research, illegal mining activity in the Iponan River stretch
will waste one ton of extracted minerals in exchange for only five grams of
high quality gold.
Ravanera said
illegal mining activities in this area have been ongoing for almost three
decades which resulted to 34 deaths since then.
Once the MOA
is fully implemented, Ravanera said law enforcers like the PNP, 4th ID and NBI
will be deployed along the 100 kilometer-stretch mining areas from Opol to
Iligan to guard against illegal mining operations.
To closely
guard the mining areas, the group will set up outposts in different areas
guarded by employed volunteers of the affected barangays, citing that without
these outposts, illegal mining will continue.
Livelihood
programs for miners
With the full
force of the law, volunteers will be employed to make sure that the laws will
be strictly implemented.
Ravanera said
most of the mining activities are funded by Chinese Nationals who earn millions
while the Filipinos who do the hard labor only get a small portion of the pie.
He said the
Sulog group is now implementing a livelihood program in which local miners will
be engaged in manufacturing compressed earth blocks (CEB) in Barangay Mambuaya.
According to
a research, CEBs are the main construction materials used in building and
empowering communities to produce on-demand housing.
CEBs are made
from an appropriate mix of soil, non-expansive clay, silt powder, and sharp
sand to small gravel content. Soil moisture content ranges from four percent to
12 percent by weight.
CEB lends
itself to 100 percent onsite building material sourcing. The thermal
insulation, sound insulation, and strength of the bricks are exceptional.
They can also
be used in fences, road paving, ovens, dams, bakery building, greenhouses,
raised garden beds, etc.
Ravanera said
with this kind of initiative, Mother Nature will be saved and local miners will
no longer resort to Illegal mining activities.
Novembre 2012, le même problème à Cagayan de Oro (CDO).
Four companies issued quarry permits by the city government to extract sand and gravel in the hinterland Iponan River were actually mining for gold, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
Four companies issued quarry permits by the city government to extract sand and gravel in the hinterland Iponan River were actually mining for gold, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
Cases of
mineral theft, illegal exploration and disobedience to persons of authority
have been filed against KFNET, Philippine Long Sangda Corp., South Ocean Mining
Corp. and Yellow Stone Minerals and Development Corp., said Rex Monsanto, the
bureau’s regional chief.
Except for
the Filipino-owned Yellow Stone Minerals and Development Corp., the mining
firms are operated by either Chinese or Korean nationals.
Mining in the
river has been blamed for the environmental destruction and siltation of the
waterway. In December last year, when Tropical Storm “Sendong” suddenly struck
the city, the Iponan overflowed and flooded low-lying barangays, killing close
to 2,000 people in the city and neighboring Iligan City.
Monsanto said
the firms had been using their dredging barges along the Iponan River in the
city’s upland area for gold-mining activities. The barges have been abandoned
by the miners since the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
filed the cases early this month.
Last month,
authorities arrested two Chinese nationals who operated in the Iponan River
using four barges. The city prosecutor’s office, however, dismissed the cases
filed against the Chinese, saying the DENR was not a party to the filing of the
charges.
The
Higaonons, an indigenous group of people in Misamis Oriental, Cagayan de Oro
and Bukidnon that has been living along the river, are asking Mayor Vicente
Emano and Misamis Oriental Gov. Oscar Moreno to allow them to use the abandoned
barges for their own sand and gravel extracting operations.
Datu
Kadayunan Melenio Minister said the leaders of the Office of the Higaonon
Tribal Association Administrative Council of Datus signed a resolution
appealing to the mayor to allow the tribe to operate its own sand and gravel
business.
The group
said it could earn money making hollow blocks and selling gravel for road
improvement projects in inner barangays.
Sulog en langue Visaya ou Bisaya : rapide, torrentiel.
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