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.
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.
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| Confiscated truck (Photo by Jong Cadion) |
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.
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 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 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.
