CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 20 May) — Heavy mining equipment like excavators and dump trucks used roads of three upland barangays in Cagayan de Oro to reach the mining sites along the Iponan River in the town of Opol, Misamis Oriental.
Engr. Armen Cuenca, chief of Cagayan de Oro Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (CLENRO) said the use of these roads are often done in broad daylight and in full view of barangay officials who look the other way.
“We have questioned the barangay officials why they have allowed these illegal mining activities and often their answers are that they are powerless to stop the miners,” Cuenca said.
He said Cagayan de Oro Mayor Rolando Uy met the officials from the three barangays last December to warn them to put a stop to the illegal mining activities along the Iponan River.
Cuenca declined to name the officials but identified the three barangays as Tumpagon, Pigsag-an and Tuburan, which share a common border with the municipality of Opol in Misamis Oriental.
He said in order to reach the mining sites, the miners have to use the roads of the three barangays since there are no roads from Opol town to Iponan River.
Iponan River straddles between Cagayan de Oro and Opol town, and empties to Macajalar Bay. Iligan City shares a common boundary with the two LGUs with the Iponan River headwaters falling in its jurisdiction.
The Court of Appeals issued the Writ of Kalikasan and a Writ of Continuing Mandamus in 2013 to protect Iponan River from illegal mining and ordered the three LGUs and the DENR, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, and Bureau of Immigration to submit monthly monitoring reports of their enforcement.
A joint operation by the DENR personnel, NBI agents and Army elite Special Forces arrested five Chinese nationals and 13 Filipino laborers in Barangay Pigsag-an, Cagayan de Oro last Saturday dawn, 13 May 2023.
Cuenca said they have monitored at least 10 illegal mining operations in Iponan River and have identified the alleged financier as a certain Samuel or Leonardo Ong.
“We have checked with the Bureau of Immigration and found they have no record with that name,” he said.
NBI assistant regional director Norman Decampong said the Chinese nationals they arrested on Saturday did not have passports and only showed copies of their Alien Certificates of Registration (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)