Protecting the seas

CHEERS TO ABS-CBN 2’s Failon Ngayon for putting the spotlight on the dangers a mining company poses to a protected part of the sea in Batangas.

On its July 11 episode “Banta ng Minahan,” the current affairs program exposed how the mining activities planned by Egerton Gold Philippines, Inc. will endanger not only the livelihood of the local residents of Lobo, Batangas, but also the Verde Island Passage once it gets an Environmental Compliance Certificate.

According to Failon Ngayon, Verde Island Passage is part of the Coral Triangle which has 76% of  the world’s known coral species. The passage alone, dubbed as “the center of the center of marine biodiversity,” is ho me to 2,983 coral species. Verde Island Passage is protected by Executive Order No. 578, which established a national policy on biological diversity.

In an interview with Director Leo Jasareno of the  Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Jasareno told ABS-CBN 2 that the mining company plans to use cyanidation to melt  gold from  mined ores. The residue will be disposed of in a tailings pond secured by a dam. However, there is no assurance that the residue will not leak into the rivers and farm lands near the area. When the current affairs program looked into the initial exploration activities of the company, they discovered that one of the seven open pits of Egerton is just 600 meters from the shoreline.

MGB told the program that they would not be able to do anything to prevent it because Egerton had already obtained a permit from the local government.

Aside from the pending danger of residue leak, the current affairs program also discovered that Egerton has requested for 864,000 drums of water daily for their operations. MGB said this may lead to a water supply shortage and may harm local agriculture.

Failon Ngayon was able to interview Lobo Vice Mayor Renato Perez, one of the signatories to the resolution passed by the city to allow Egerton to explore three barangays for minerals. Perez told the program that they gave permission because of  the company’s promise to provide 150 jobs to local residents. The report said that in addition to the few jobs that the company will make available, the affected barangays, the city and provincial governments will  be getting only 2% of the estimated profits while the company would get 98%.

The program sought the provincial officials’ statement on the matter. The officials in turn promised to stop Egerton  as the company would still need an ECC to proceed.

This is not the first time that Failon Ngayon has reported on the dangers of mining. The program  covered in past episodes the effects of mining in Benguet, Surigao, Eastern Samar, and Agusan Del Norte.