By Julius Breva
Dumingag,
Zamboanga del Sur – Dumingag Mayor Nacianceno M. Pacalioga, Jr assailed
a powerful group, including a top provincial cop, for being behind
illegal mining.
Pacalioga
said he was so saddened that as Mayor he could not stop armed men from
mining illegally in Dumingag and could not hold their confiscated
mineral ore.
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| Confiscated truck (Photo by Jong Cadion) |
Last
November 10, the local police apprehended a truck containing 216 sacks
of mineral ore from a mining site in Dumingag and impounded it at the
police station.
However,
Nieves Erojo, along with his husband Police Major Prudencio Erojo, the
Provincial Officer of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, came
last November 16 to Dumingag Mayor’s Office to own the confiscated ore
and to negotiate with Pacalioga for its release.
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| Mayor Paccalioga (right) interview with NUJP Pres. Jong Cadion |
Pacalioga
said the rule of law does not anymore exist in Dumingag because around
30 people continue to mine gold and copper at barangay Licabang,
Dumingag without permit from the municipal and provincial governments,
guarded by two squads of heavily armed men brandishing Armalite rifles.
He said the armed men reportedly belong to the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng group of Ozamiz City and to the notorious MILF faction led by Juaning Abdussalam.
They
brazen it out even without permit and consent of the local populace, as
if they have powerful backers to protect them, Pacalioga said.
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| Truck loaded with ore mineral materials (Photo by Jong Cadion) |
Pacalioga said that Fiscal Victoriano Gonzaga called up to inform him that the
provincial fiscal office might issue an order for the release of the
confiscated truckload of ore since, without assay documents, there is no
proof that the load contains minerals.
However,
Dumingag Assistant Parish Priest Leonardo Gassang said that the local
church is willing to stage people power should the Enojo’s couple
succeed in having the truck released because of technicality. He said he
might rally church people to barricade around the confiscated ore.
Pacalioga said that only the church caused Fiscal Gonzaga to think twice before issuing an order to release the ore.
Pacalioga
believes that there are still more backers than the Erojo’s couple, and
he appeals for support from church people and environmentalists as he
is against an apparently very powerful group.
He
said in spite of the odds, the Dumingag LGU would fight it out against
the illegal miners since mining contradicts to its centerpiece program
which is organic agriculture.
Dumingag will also host the 1st Organic
Agriculture Congress in Mindanao in February 2012. It is a member of
the Mindanao Network for Sustainable Organic Farming Technology
(MINSOFT) and the only LGU member of the International Federation of
Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).
Dumingag
is also a recipient of the prestigious 2010 Galing Pook Award for its
entry on steering local development thru people empowerment and
sustainable agriculture.