By KARLOS MANLUPIG
PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley—A loud cracking sound followed by waves upon waves of clay, timber and rocks roused sleeping residents in a poor small-scale mining community in Sitios Diat 1 and 2 in Barangay Napnapan, Pantukan, Compostela Valley before dawn of Jan. 5.
Shortly after, more than 50 houses would be buried in rubble, leaving residents who survived the nature’s onslaught in shock.
Thirty-six bodies have been retrieved and four of these remain unidentified, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Sixteen people were rescued from the site of the landslide and were immediately brought to the Davao Regional Hospital in Tagum City. But the NDRRMC reported 40 people still missing.
Dr. Arnulfo Lataya of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Pantukan said Napnapan, the site of the tragedy, is a high-risk area. It has been a mining area since the 1980’s.
“We marked this zone as a high-risk area for landslides and the last recorded landslide in this area was on April 2011 that left 14 people dead,” he said.
Small-scale mining operations in Pantukan was authorized in accordance with the approval of the 80-hectare “minahang bayan,” which recognizes the right of the people to benefit from the rich mineral deposits of the country.
Following the Jan. 5 incident, however, the local government and the NDRRMC declared a work stoppage and ordered an enforced evacuation on the small mining settlements in the area. But many small miners are resisting the order.
“We will continue what we have started here despite the threats of similar incidents,” said Lina Daniel, a miner’s wife who survived the landslide. “This is where our livelihood is. What are we going to do in the lowlands? Will the government provide decent jobs for us? We will only die there because of hunger.”
