Groups hit Vizcaya mine firms for destruction of environment

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya -- Environmental groups assailed three big mine firms in Nueva Vizcaya last week for “ecological destruction and resource plunder.”

           

This, after a fact-finding mission last week led by the Defend Patrimony Alliance and the AlyansangNagkakaisang Novo VizcayanosparasaKalikasan (ANNVIK).

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) bared these saying massive biodiversity loss, water pollution, and human rights violations were observed in the indigenous peoples and peasant communities affected by foreign mining corporations Oceana Gold and FCF Minerals.

“Based on the initial investigation we conducted, the main river in Barangay Didipio where Oceana Gold releases their mining effluents is biologically dead. In our scoping study, we observed the foul stench, the thick, orange-brown siltation and the disappearance of aquatic resources. Water snails, shrimps, carp, mud fish and other local species that used to populate the river, according to locals, have all disappeared,” said Bautista who led  environmental scoping team on Oceana Gold gold mining operation sites.

Bautista said water pollution in Didipio reached other barangays and communities in Qurino province.

The Didipio River merges with Diduyon River which traverses Quirino. 

Local residents also reported reduction of frog populations and the increase of mosquitos in communities.

Froggs and fishes are reportedly natural biological regulators of mosquitos.

The fact-finding team said biological imbalance  threaten nearby communities in Barangay Didipio with an outbreak of dengue and other insect-borne diseases.

Luis Paulino, resident of Barangay Alimit, Kasibu town said small-scale miners and other folk who have been exposed to waters where Oceana Gold’s tailings flow have consistently experienced itching and inhaled squalid odors.

“Rare wildlife such as makawa (local deer), hagiit (wild boars) and kalaw (hornbills) that we used to see in our forests can no longer be seen. This started when Oceana Gold started to clear our forest, blast our mountains and excavate our lands.”

          

Meanwhile, the scoping team in Barangay Runruno where the Runruno Gold and Molybdenum project of FCF Minerals is reportedly currently in the mine development. 

“Similar to Oceana Gold’s mine development stage, waterways have either decreased in both flow and volume or have completely dried up, while some ‘dead creeks’, as locals put it, have suddenly strengthened most likely due to deliberate water diversion, a FFM statement said. 

 “We also observed signs of decreased water quality, including signs of chemical contamination and increased turbidity in comparison to observed unaffected rivers that will likely impact on the irrigation, potable water supply and sanitation of communities. This was most apparent in Sulong River, where residents noted the disappearance of paco (ferns) and other riverside flora as well as a decrease in productivity and stunted growth of fisheries,” said Dr. Chito Medina, national coordinator of the peasant-scientist group MASIPAG and expert of scoping team on FCF Minerals.

The groups also noted destruction of rice fields, citrus plantations and other cultivated lands alongside homes and properties in all affected barangays by both the Australian-owned Oceana Gold and British-owned FCF Minerals.

According to Fr. Vicente Tiam, chairperson of ANNVIK, “the findings of the mission is a clarion call for justice on the crimes committed by mining TNCs to the people and the environment of Nueva Vizcaya. “

The operations of Oceana Gold and FCF Minerals are in clear conflict with the declaration of the Magat River Forest Reserve as a Permanent Forest Reserve in which more or less 97 percent of Nueva Vizcaya is included.”

          

 “These projects were granted under the auspices of the Mining Act of 1995 and more likely further reinforced by Pres. Benigno Aquino’s Executive Order 79 that may serve as basis for the overriding of local and national environmental policies. The realities unearthed by the NFSSM are an indictment on the current mining policy regime.  There is a need to investigate the environmental damage done by large-scale mining in Nueva Vizcaya. The local and national governments should look into the violations and these polluters should be held accountable,” said Leon Dulce, spokesperson of the Defend Patrimony! Alliance.