This past summer,2010,the nation suffered severe drought which has been attributed to the weather phenomenon"El Nino."As in all"Nino"years,his sister La Nina follows quickly and comes barreling in with an early and exaggerated Northeast Monsoon.Coming before its time,this extra-heavy Monsoon replaces the normally dry,crisp air of winter ("crisp"being a relative term in the tropics) and instead we are subjected to an extra hot,humid and rainy spring.With the heavy logging that takes place on Mindanao landslides are an annual occurrence that are only aggravated by the extra-heavy rains.Since the logging gets worse each year so do the landslides become more frequent.
Quite often these disasters take place in so called"Small Scale Mining"sites.Though most Small Scale Mining is legal,there is absolutely no oversight what so ever.The prospective miner pays a fee to his LGU (Local Govt.Unit,i.e.municipality and province).From that point there is no mandatory oversight though very,very rarely one finds a municipality that gets such miners to voluntarily enter into oversight agreements that guarantee periodic inspections and other supervisory oversight modalities.Still,even in those rare areas the miners denude the hills.If they aren't using the illegaly harvested timber for squatter homes or shoring up their haphazard tunnels and giant sluice rigs then they are selling the wood as quick as they can cut it down.
This Good Friday,April 22,2011 in the municipality of Pantukan in ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) miners were in their tunnels earlier than usual.Despite nominal adherance to Catholicism most miners retain indigenous beliefs.So it was that at 3AM that morning the illegaly dug tunnels were filled with small scale miners making offerings to the deity of the underworld,the patron of local miners.The ceremony,"Padugo"involves animal sacrifice,usually a chicken but sometimes a piglet whose blood is drained into the soil of the main shaft in front of an altar containing ceremonial plants and a saint statue.Without a doubt these miners were praying for protection from mishap in addition to pleading for good fortune.How ironic then that as they kneeled in their tunnels doing that at 230AM,1,200 cubic meters of mud cleaved off the hilltop above them and buried them.
The mining site lies in Sitio Panganason B,in the remote barangay of Kingking.Laying upcountry,13km as the crow flies from the centre of Pantukan proper,Barangay Poblacion,there are only rudimentary foot trails spanning several steep hills and crossing rapidly flowing creeks and rivlets.Even in dry season travel is relegated to off road motorcycles or more often,trekking in and out on foot.More over,the ubiqitous cell phones that seem to be attached at the hip of so many Filipinos are of no use that far out in the bush.If the mountains do no effect the signal inclement weather always will.It wasn't until 830AM that a breathless messenger ran into the municipal hall out of breath that the wider world had finally learned of the tragedy.
Mayor Celso V.Sarenas sprang into action being a veteran by now,of similar natural disasters since Small Scale Mining has been rampant in his municipality for more than 2 decades now.Indeed,in 2009 a landslide had befallen the immediately adjoining barangay of Napnapan killing at least 26 people.Mayor Sarenas immediately called the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) 1001st Brigade Headquarters in the nearby town of Maco as he began the official notifications and seeking military assistance.Afterwards the mayor followed Standard Operating Procedure,that favourite phrase uttered by technocrats and called the base camps of 3 mining tenement base camps.Only 1,the American-based multi national Russell Mining was able to offer heavy equipment.Located about 4km to the south of the effected area,Mayor Sarenas finally got the camp super on the line and asked him to donate any manpower and equipment he might be able to offer.More over he asked the super to call the base camp of Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR)/Saint Agustine,the other American-based outfit in the sector and ask for the same from them.The Russell camp superintendent offered his Catepillar D9,a bulldozer with a 4.2 meter wide blade but couldn't provide much in the way of manpower since the Easter Weekend was upon them.He did promise to call NADECOR/St.Agustine and then send the bulldozer over straight away.Back in the municipal hall the mayor was able to locate a phone number for the 3rd multi-national mining company,APEX and called and made the same request.APEX sent its Chief Engineer and a full crew of labourers.
Meanwhile,the 1001st Bde (Brigade) had called its Regional Command,EASMINCOM (Eastern Mindanao Command) headquartered in Davao City and made them aware of the situation.Immediately EASMINCOM scrambled a rescue helicopter from the PAF (Philippine Air Force) 505th Air Rescue Wing and so the rescue effort began.
By noon Russell Mining and the AFP's 71IB (Infantry Battalion),72IB and CAFGU (Citizens Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit,a Force Multiplication entity composed of local residents who are armed,trained and directly supervised by AFP cadres) were digging by hand.Unlike more industrialised nations there aren't any sound detection or heat seeking equipment to help locate victims,alive OR dead.There aren't even any blueprints or even the most rudimentary of maps.In fact,for the first 3 days Mayor Sarenas had everyone operating on the assumption that there were 30 homes in the sitio.Indeed there were 112.Though,in the mayor's defence,a squatter community by its very nature exists off the grid.Its residents do not file deeds,let alone information about their home or family.The barangay's remote location relegated it to an unknown quantity.In fact,the mayor had warned the community to vacate the sitio in 2010 but had been ignored.In fact,when that 2009 landslide took place in Barangay Napnapan's Sitio Boringot,a non-fatal one had happened just hours later in Sitio Panganason-B,the very same site I am discussing.
As surviving miners offered later that day,with gold paying 2,000 Pesos per gram ($38) people will keep digging,safety be damned.One miner had been trying sleep off a late evening drinking bout when the bunkhouse he was sleeping in jumped off the ground and began quickly moving towards a nearby ravine.Having made his way out its doorway (luckily the crude strycture had no door or the man might now be with his friends buried under at least 6 meters of mud) and began swiming on the top of the quickly moving mass.By the time it stopped at the far end of the valley floor he was chest deep and certainly would have suffocated if others hadn't lassoed him and pulled him out by motorcycle.Still,he said that while he's still not sure about his own future in mining he is fatalistic.Now having survived 3 fatal mudslides and only 26 years old,he feels that when one's rime is up,its up.Destiny is what it is,especially in a country where children must grow up eating roadkill,when lucky.
Shortly after the messenger had made his way into the municipal hall,the first corpse was discovered and pulled free.15 year old John Ric"JunJun"Torrejos lived in Barangay Buan in Tagum City in the next province,Davao del Norte but was already a veteran miner working with his father and 12 year old brother in the family's tunnel mine and dmall ball mill operation.Both his younger brother and father would soon be found dead as well.Just after JunJun's battered corpse was identified by a distraught aunt who lived in the squatter camp below the hill the bulldozer arrived.After its arrival people began arriving in small groups,having hiked in from town.
The PAF Search and Rescue helicopter from the 505th swooped low not long after but the site's sharp ridgelines and unstable footing prevented an immediate landing.It would be much later in the day before the pilots were told the co+ordinates for Panganason Elementary School whose adjoining field had served as a helipad in the 2009 landslide.
With the latest 2 bodies hoped dimmed of finding anyone alive in the 5 separate tunnel systems dotting the fractured hillside.Still,Mayor Sarenas kept up appearances and didn't offically declare an end to Rescue Operations until Sunday night,April 24.After an intial 13 people were rescued,all within 10 minutes of the actual event,no other"happy endings"would be pulled out of the debris.Without helicopters the officials present decided to have local"habal-habal"(motorcycle taxis,in this case off road) strap the cadavers to boards fitted onto the back of the motorcycle and bring them to a funeral home in the town proper
.When the DENR Region XI's (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources) MGB (Mining and Geosciences Bureau,sublimated to the DENR) representative,Noel Angeles arrived on site he immediately issued a Stop Order barring all mining in both that sitio,Panganason-B as well as the adjoining Sitio Panganason-A.Mayor Sarenas then issueThe 30 became 68 spanning both sitions,A and B,and finally the order encompassed all outlying homes to the tune of 112.The Order was officially handed out on Monday,April 25,2PM,All residents were given 48 hours to vacate and the option of demolishing their own homes (something most naturally choose so as to save the materiel for its nect location).One imagines that if in fact the situation was as dangerous as the local government claimed-and I have every reason to imagine it was-that the mayor would have made his order effective immediately.Just after that meaningless directive 4 more dead victims were pulled from a single buried tunne:
1) Cristituto Torrejos Sr.,father of the first victim recovered,JunJun.Cristituto Sr.was 44 years old and like his son resided in Barangay Cuamboagan,Tagum City,Davao del Norte Province
2) Brindo Dani,age 26,Barangay Buan,Asuncion,Davao del Norte Province
3) Marvin A.Anglay,19 years old,same barangay,etc.as Victim #2
4) Pio Dennis Calapis,17 tears old,same barangay,etc.as Victim #1
By the time that the 48 hour deadline to vacate transpired on Wednesday,April 27th at 2PM three families refused to comply and the Philippines being the weak state that it is tried reasoning with these 3 families.In the end the 3 held their ground (no pun intended,OK.maybe just a tad bit) and continue to live in that otherwise barren sitio.The rest of the community was housed in the nearby Panganason Elementary School.Back at the site the heavy rains continued and so it was incredibly slow going.All the more si since the single piece of heavy equipment,lent by Russell Mining,was released back to its base camp since the ground was too innundated with moisture to allow effective use of heavy equipment.The Provincial Government had also brought a smaller bulldozer,a backhoe and a single axle dumptruck in over the weekend and they stayed on site continously though almost always off to the side due to unstable terrain.
On Tuesday,April 26th,as rains began coming heavier rescuers sighted 5 bodies.In quick succession the 5 were unearthed ahead of a heavy downpour with workers removing the 5th cadaver just as the skies opened up over head.The following 5 were identified immediately:
1) Jericho Escoto,38 years old,Baguio City,Mountain Province,Luzon Island
2) Felixberto Ynay,54 years old,resided in the same sitio where he died
3) Vincent Balog,21 years old,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
4) Junel Lapates,no age available,the same address as Victim #3
5) Noel Caincoy,aged 21,same address as Victims # 3 and 4
With the rains worked stop and did not resume until Thursday morning,April 28.On Wednesday a 22 man team of volunteers was deployed by the Pantukan Municipal Engineer's office to demolish the homes not already dismantled by their owners.Because of the rain they too didn't begin until Thursday,the 28th.Before finishing they demolished 52 homes.The work contimued on through Friday but otherwise nothing fruitful occurred.Both the Search and Rescue helicopter from the PAF 505th as well as 2 other Hueys (UH-1H) from the 11th TOG (Tactical Operations Group) at EASMINCOM were released and returned to their base in Davao City.Likwise the provincial government's heavy equipment was also released as the operation began winding down.
On Saturday,April 30th the last 2 bodies were sighted soon after operations began that morning.2 pairs of hands were seen,as if reaching for succor above the mud encasing both bodies at the bottom of a vertical shaft,10 meters deep.In checking the situation it was discovered that the 4 meter deep mud that had buried both those bodies had solidified and set.Using piped in water to soften the soil as personnel from the Davao City Fire and Rescue Department rapelled down,at significant danger to themselves and spent more than 3 hours carefully removing the 2 bodies.The first removed was a young man whose identity remained a mystery until Tuesday,May 3rd when his grieving mother was finally able to identify 16 year old Alejandro Justol.The last body removed,at 130PM that afternoon was 12 year old Cristituto Torrejos Jr.,brother of JunJun and son of Cristituti Sr.
On Sunday,May 1 the retrieval phase officially ended with 9 people still unaccounted for and presuned dead in addition to the 14 identified victims that had been recovered over the previous 9 days.
The 14 victims:
1) Cristituto Torrejos. Sr.,age 44 of Barangay Cuamboagan,Tagum City,Davao del Norte Province
2) Cristituto Torrejos Jr.,12,son of Victim #1,same address
3) Pio Dennis Calapis,17 years old,same address as Victims #1,2 and 3
4) John Ric Torrejos,15,son of Victim #1,elder brother of Victim #2,same address as them
5) Brindo Dani,26 years old,Barangay Buan,Asuncion,Davao del Norte Province
6) Marjon A.Guilbatan,19 years old,same address as Victim #4
7) Marvin A.Anglay,19 years old,same address as Victims #5 and 4
8) Relito T.Tebag,21 years old,same address as Victims #4,5 and 6
9) Felixberto Ynay,54 years old,lived in the squatter community,Sitio Panganason-B,Barangay Kingking,Pantukan,ComVal Province
10) Vincent Balog,21 years old,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
11) Noel Caincoy,21 years old,same address as Victim #10
12) Junel Lapates,age unknown,possibly juvenile,same address as Victims #10 and 11
13) Alejandro Justol,age 16,resident of that squatter community.He had initially been un-identified because his mother,also residing there,had gone into a catatonic-like stupor and so noone was willing to identify him until his mother re-gained a modicum of composure
14) Jericho Escoto,38 years old,Baguio City,Mountain Province,Luzon Island
Though not yet officially dead,the 8 miners who remain missing are of course dead as well.There names:
1) Bernard Celestial,of Tagum City
2) Bobit Celestial,same municipality
3) Jay Omega,Maco,ComVal Province
4) Alvin Caincoy,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
5) Andy Lapates,same address as Victim #4
6) Bitoy (no surname),Lasang,Davao del Sur Province
7) Erning (no surname),a Sama Tribesman,Samal Island,Davao del Sur Province
8) Jongjong,same information as Victim #7
Though not listed in any of the lists,there was a full wallet found,and locals insist that the following man is dead as well
9) Boloy Ensisel,Barangay San Roque,Panabo City,Davao del Norte Province
The fallout politically has been a tad bit more than we usually see.These kind of senseless deaths take place all too often and so the government rarely even bats an eye about it.This time however things have turned out differently.Perhaps it is a domino like effect from the AFP Corruption Scandal (General Garcia Case) that I began outlining in the"Last Quarter of 2010 AFP"entries.New attitudes just might be contagious.In any event,Bayan Muna Party List Congressman Teddy A.Casino has authored a Bill now siitting in the Natural Resources Committee,HB#4315,"People's Mining Act of 2011."It hopes to supercede the very faulty"People's Mining Act of 1991."Specifically it takes aim at Presidential Decree#1899 and to a lesser degree,#s 463 and 512.
Likewise,Senator Loren Legarda has authored a Senate Resolution seeking an investigation as well as a hearing with the DENR to find out just how it handles Small Scale Mining.
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