ITOGON, Benguet – The municipal government underscored it had never been remiss in reminding pocket miners of the prevailing restrictions on their operations and their role in ensuring a sound environment for the community.
Mayor Bernard S. Waclin pointed out that his administration had been aggressively informing the various small-scale mining groups on the prevailing temporary ban on their operations aside from reminders that their operations should not affect the sources of livelihood of other people, especially those relying on agriculture as their main source of livelihood in the downstream barangays.
He said that during previous consultations on the strategies that will be embraced to convince concerned government agencies to lift the ban on pocket mining operations, small-scale miners had been time and gain reminded not to dump their chemical waste along waterways so as not to contaminate the same thereby resulting to a series of fish kills along some river systems in the municipality that deprived fisherfolk of their established sources of livelihood.
The local chief executive stated that the more important reminder that had been cascaded to the small-scale miners is for them to continue adhering to the ongoing implementation of the temporary ban on pocket mining operations so that the regulating agencies will be convinced to lift the ban for them to be able to resume their source of livelihood.
According to him, the municipal government, in close coordination with the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB), is doing its best to send out the message to relevant authorities on the urgent request of small-scale miners for the lifting of the ban on pocket mining thus small-scale miners should not give any reason for the concerned government agencies not to grant their request.
Mayor Waclin emphasized that pocket miners should not commit any act that might compel the concerned government agencies to further extend the prevailing ban on small-scale mining operations in the Cordillera because the various local governments have already done their part in constantly reminding the regulating agencies to lift the ban so that tens of thousands of small-scale miners can resume their productive activities.
Earlier, the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) came out with a report stating that based on the investigation on the reported fish kills in some river systems in the municipality, the primary cause of these were the small-scale miners who allegedly unscrupulously dump their chemical waste in waterways that tend to cause the fish kills.
The EMB-CAR has received reports of several incidents of fish kill along various waterways in the municipality last year that prompted the agency to organize a technical team to investigate the real cause of these incidents.
Itogon is one of the first-class municipalities in the province that rely on large and small-scale mining as its major source of income.