Davao Oriental Farm Villages Protest Small-Scale Mining

Residents of Banaybanay and Lupon town have joined hands with environmentalists in raising alarm over the proliferation of small-scale mining operations in a mountain village near the Compostela Valley boundary.

The Save Sumlog River Alliance (Sasura) called on Gov. Corazon Malanyaon to stop mining operations in the sitios of Anogkot and Tabon in Barangay Marayag, a hinterland village in Lupon town.

Sasura chair Felix Mejos said here Thursday his group was also asking Malanyaon to declare over 44,000 hectares of land near the Sumlog watershed as a protected area.

“Mine wastes from tunnels are dumped into the river, making the water level shallow and lacing it with mine toxic wastes,” Mejos said.
Mejos, who is also head of a farmers’ association in the town, led a party of environment advocates, local officials and journalists on a fact-finding mission to the area.

“It was an appalling sight,” he said. Logs were strewn all over and mine wastes had turned the river brown.

Mejos said at least 50 small-scale operators formed a cooperative to mine the area, but unregistered miners also thrive there.

Mejos said concerns about the dangers of mining in the area had been raised since last year, prompting the towns of Lupon and Banaybanay to pass resolutions asking the provincial government of Davao Oriental to ban mining.

Local officials also feared that continued mining in the area would destroy the Sumlog watershed and cause an environment calamity.
“We need to act together now,” town councilor Liezel Teves said.

Edwin Tagara, a 47-year-old farmer from Barangay Rang-ay here, said his yield fell to 80 sacks per hectare in the last cropping season compared to his previous harvest of 120 bags because chemical wastes like cyanide and mercury, which are being dumped on the river from the mining site, found their way into his farm.