Gold diggers

There is something about the mystical cloud-covered mountains of the Cordilleras that will lure anyone deep into the belly. And it’s more than just the crisp mountain air and the bountiful spirit.

This edge of the earth is God’s Kingdom, a famed utopia of sorts, a transcendent place with venerated ancestors and many have been drawn to its molten treasure, found beneath its layers and layers of earth. For decades, gold diggers from near and far have succumbed to the seductive call of the mountain’s legendary gold deposits.

But as we’ve seen in the recent tragedy in the mining town of Ucab in Itogon, Benguet, what the mountain Gods give, they also take away.

And it’s very sad to realize that that so many similar tragedies have happened in the past.

Why is it that we never learn? Is it because desperate Filipinos, faced with no other source of income, risk life and limb to eke out a living by going to the mines? Is it because authorities who are supposed to be regulating small-scale mining in the country just look the other way? Is it because after the dust settles and the journalists leave, these mining sites will still be left open and unguarded for new generations of small-scale miners to explore?

What the real answers are, I don’t know for sure but the problem deserves so much attention — now more than ever.

We can’t afford another tragedy. It would be mean that the deaths of those buried in the landslide — the recent one and all the other landslides in the past — would just be all for naught.

Authorities must make sure that mountains too dangerous for small-scale mining must be tightly cordoned off, even guarded by the military if necessary.

And in times of calamities, there must be forced evacuation.

We can’t simply say that the miners have been warned and it’s their fault because they ignored the warnings.

The desperately poor will always do what they can to survive. Their judgment is clouded by perennial worries on how to bring food on the table. They will more often than not choose to stay in their places of livelihood, no matter the danger.

It is really the local authorities’ responsibility to make sure they evacuate when there are danger signs.

Clearly, this was not what happened in Itogon last week before Super Typhoon Ompong struck.

The gold rush

In the long-term, the government should also have a clearer policy on small-scale mining because the gold diggers will not stop. The gold rush after all remains as irresistible as before.

The gold rush in the north started in the 1890s, when many claimants, most of them Americans, started to explore the area.

In the 1920s, the district had displaced Masbate as the country’s premier gold producer, according to ”Isles of Gold: A History of Mining in the Philippines” by Salvador Lopez, which was commissioned by the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines.

“The accelerated development of the Baguio mining district was sparked by the gold booms of the 1930s. The increase in the price of gold from $20.67 to $35 an ounce precipitated a frenetic rush to the mountains of the Baguio district and elsewhere where gold was previously mined or where it was potentially mineable. The gold boom of 1933, the first in Philippine mining history, led to a vigorous effort to revive old claims, stake new ones, and operate the mines in the Baguio area. The renaissance of the industry is traceable to the sensational gold find in Balatoc in 1929.

“The real gold boom, however, occurred in 1936, a time of wild stock-market speculation.”

“The frenzy over the mining stocks and the gold booms did not only tap the full potential of Baguio as a mining district but also enhanced its growth as a community. The industry brought the men from the lowlands – the technical people, businessmen, laborers, families, others – to the mines. The companies partially subsidized the construction of roads and bridges leading to the mines and supported the budding aviation and shipping industry.”

But decades later, the gold rush also gave way to the birth of small-scale mining by freelance gold diggers who mine in tenement areas without permits. They also don’t have the heavy equipment used by large-scale mining companies, making their activities very dangerous.

The government must put a stop to these activities. Another tragedy will only show how this nation fails its people again and again. As I write this, the number of retrieved bodies keeps going up, some just parts of a body. But the final tally does not matter. One death is already too many.

And the story is a tragic as it can be: once upon a time in God’s Kingdom, there was a tragedy. A mountain of gold collapsed and buried them all. Days after, men found no signs of life, just swollen and muddied bodies, one after another and not an ounce of gold was found in the muck. The bodies were put in their final place – wooden white caskets surrounded by trimmings of fake gold.