By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Minahang Bayan applications are now being approved by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the DENR. As of now, there are 11 already approved and two more are about to get also the nod of the government. In no time, thousands of Cordillerans would be back into “dog holes” to earn a living looking for gold ore they literally have to scratch and scoop with their hands only aided by rudimentary tools.
Such way of earning a living is also referred to as “salda biag” as lives are always on the line every working hours.
The least that could have been done by the MGB was to assure the observance of health protocols. Another imperative is avoiding polluting of the environment. Stringent measures should have been required for this before the permits were issued. More so considering the bad reputation of small scale miners carelessly throwing away to the environment poisonous chemicals anywhere such as mercury and cyanide.
While concerned officials will swear to high heavens that such measures were strictly required and would also be monitored in the same manner, the reputation of earlier Minahang Bayan areas in the region indicates the opposite. As observed, miners who had been working for years in one area had yellowish skins especially on their forearms. Allegedly, this indicated a lot of mercury had entered and already took residence in their bodies. With that, terrible and incurable diseases would not be far behind.
It is not just the miners themselves who are in danger due to laxity in the enforcement of, and monitoring of compliance with, the rules. To repeat for emphasis what had been said above, talks are rife of the habit of small scale miners to just carelessly throw away their used chemicals like cyanide and mercury on ditches, canals, creeks or streams thereby endangering people, marine life and crops downstream. The chemicals are not only disease causing, they can kill.
As one mining engineer observed, the small scale mines are sometimes more dangerous to the environment than big conventional mines.
Another matter the MGB should require miners is also to educate them on investing or using their prospective earnings as capital for small or medium businesses. While this might not be an expertise of that department they should tap the government agencies concerned with such matters.
A study financed by a Japanese foundation found out that a big bulk of the earnings of small scale miners which can be quite a pile were being lost in the casinos. It is not so different from the case of highland vegetable farmers who had been addicted by the roll of the dice or the bells of slot machines. They are often welcomed and treated like VIPs whenever they go to these places even if they are shabbily dressed. But they often leave the next morning or a few days after, teary eyed with pockets and wallets as empty as those of a pauper.
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