JUST a week after assuming the top Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) post in July, Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez issued an order stopping Hinatuan Mining Corp. (HMC) from retrieving its stockpile of nickel ore from Manicani Island in the town of Guiuan, Eastern Samar Province.
An environmental advocate, Lopez said the order aims to prevent further damage on Manicani’s already vulnerable ecosystems, particularly its marine ecosystem.
She said the “excessive extraction” of soil from the island, which was devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in 2013, is increasing the risks of disaster.
Key biodiversity area
The Guiuan Marine Reserve Protected Landscape and Seascape (GMRPLS) covers the areas of Guiuan and the neighboring islands of Manicani, Candulo, Suluan, Tubabao, Calicoan and Homonhon in the province of Eastern Samar, with 40 component barangays. It covers an aggregate area of 60,488 hectares.
Because of its natural beauty and potentials for aquatic sports, tourism and marine-life conservation, Presidential Proclamation 469, Series of 1994, signed by then-President Fidel V. Ramos on September 26, 1994, declared Guiuan as a protected area covered by the National Integrated Protected Area System (Nipas) Act under the category protected landscape and seascape.
According to the DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau, GMRPLS is part of the much larger Guiuan to Salcedo Key Biodiversity Area. It has diverse marine and coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, sea grass beds and coral reefs.
Trigger species
The reefs harbor the trigger species—two species of corals (Anacropora puertogalerae and Montipora samarensis) and one species of giant clams or mollusks (Tridacna derasa) as listed in Conservation International (CI).
The Alliance for Zero Extinction defined trigger species as those listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered by International Union for the Conservation of Nature on its 2004 Red List, and with 95 percent or more of its entire known population confined to a single site.
The reefs are major fishing grounds of fishermen from Guiuan and from the nearby islands of Leyte, Cebu and Bohol.
Scientists say the rich water of Leyte Gulf is the major passageway of Pacific Ocean waters, which brings in larvae and mangrove propagules. Besides reef fishes, other fisheries products from the area include tuna and mackerels.
The vast sea-grass bed and mangrove area in Leyte Gulf, apart from being fishing grounds, are also feeding areas for migratory birds. In 2008 22 species of birds, eight of which migratory, were recorded in the area.
Serious threats
While HMC claimed that its operation on Manicani Island had stopped as early as the 1990s, antimining groups claimed that hauling the old stockpile of nickel ore from the island is a mining activity in itself.
The groups also demanded the rehabilitation of the island to prevent geological hazards, particularly landslides, which may endanger the lives of the people and further damage the island’s ecosystem, including its remaining mangrove forest and coral reefs.
Manicani Island is not the only island within the GMRPLS affected by mining operations. Homonhon Island is host to several mining operations, as well.
According to Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), the companies of Techiron Resources Inc., Mount Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp. and Emir Mineral Resources Development Corp. are operating on Homonhon Island. The operation of Mount Sinai and Emir Mineral were suspended by Lopez several days after that of HMC.
A network of people’s organizations (POs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), church/faith-based groups and Misereor, the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church based in Aachen, Germany, PMPI is opposing the mining operations on Manicani and Homonhon Islands, saying they are the biggest threat to the islands’ ecosystems and livelihood of the communities.
Fishermen to miners
Employees of HMC, however, disputed the allegation of PMPI.
They said mining offered a better alternative to farming and fishing as a way of life to many people living on the island. They said fish productivity in Guiuan started to suffer way back in the 1970s because of rampant overfishing by commercial fishing vessels that use trawls, a destructive fishing method, along with the use of dynamite and cyanide.
Interviewed during a visit on Manicani Island last month, farmers and fishermen said they just rely on the little income they could get from farming and fishing for sustenance. Even the forest, said Igmedio Abucejo, 57, is already degraded when HMC came in the 1990s.
“Dynamite and cyanide fishing were popularly used before. The fishermen used compressor when they dive to retrieve the dead fishes after dynamite blasting or cyanide spraying,” the Barangay Buenavista-born Abucejo said in Filipino.
Nerissa Ida, 51, of Barangay Banag and Estrella Loyola, 57, of Barangay Homorawon said they tried to plant cassava, locally known as balinghoy or kamoteng kahoy, before, but it took a long time to harvest and the yield is not enough to feed the average family.
“Mining is a big help to us residents of Manicani. Those who say the environment is damaged are not from here. The forest has long been denuded, and the corals have long been gone because of dynamite fishing. If mining operations are stopped, the residents would lose their jobs and they might return to illegal fishing,” Michael Vergara, 27, a resident who works as a communication officer of HMC on the island, said in Filipino.
Protecting Guiuan
Guiuan Mayor Christopher Sheen P. Gonzales, in a telephone interview, said Guian’s fishing grounds remain productive. However, he said many areas within the municipal fishing grounds have been declared as “no-take zone” as part of the effort to protect and conserve spawning areas of fish and other marine life.
“There are fish sanctuaries and marine protected areas [MPAs] where fishing is not allowed. We are trying to save Guiuan while we still can,” the mayor, who is now serving his second term, explained.
“If they are after bigger catch, they would have to go out, farther away from Guiuan,” he said.
Personally, the mayor said he is against mining because of its destructive nature. He said, he inherited the problem brought by the issue of mining on Manicani and Homonhon, which he admitted have provided income and livelihood to the people.
However, he said, without mining, many people on the island would lose their jobs. Of the 495 employees of HMC on Manicani Island, only 60 were retained as the company shifts to “care and maintenance” mode starting on August 31.
“That is our problem right now,” he said, speaking mostly in Filipino.
Gonzales said he is holding on to the promised help from Secretary Lopez.
He said the people on both Manicani and Homonhon islands need immediate help, which only the national government can provide. He said the local government has no capacity to finance livelihood programs for a big number of people and their families who would suffer the consequence of the DENR’s campaign against irresponsible mining.
The town mayor fears the resurgence of illegal fishing activities, as those who lost their jobs would be forced to go back to their old ways of using trawl, dynamite and cyanide.
There are currently 10 Bantay Dagat (Sea Guard) protecting GMRPLS. By the end of the month, this would increase by 50 more who would patrol the area.
“We started the capacity-building training of more Bantay Dagat [members]. In the next few days, there will be more people patrolling our fishing grounds against illegal fishing,” he said.
A vicious cycle
While admitting that the problem of dwindling fish catch and unsustainable agriculture was already being felt on both Manicani and Homonhon before mining companies came on the two islands, PMPI National Coordinataor Yolly Esguerra said it still does not dispel the fact that the destructive nature of mining on the two island aggravated the situation of the people.
The residents, she said, complained of air pollution because of the dust from mining operations.
Esguerra said the people on Manicani and Homonhon islands are caught in a vicious cycle of unsustainable way of life because of mining. “We see mining as a big threat to sustainable agriculture and fishing on Manicani and Homonhon. When mining started, migrants arrived because it was easy to earn money. But if we want sustainable way of life, we should conserve and protect the land and water resources,” Esguerra said.
She said based on their interviews with the people on the two islands, farming and fishing used to be productive.
‘Project Pagbangon’
After Yolanda in November 2013, fishermen claimed that the volume of their catch decreased from an average of 3 kilograms (kg) to just 1 kg a day.
PMPI launched in 2014 its project dubbed “Project Pagbangon” on Manicani and Homonhon Islands to help the farmers and fishermen.
The project aims to reestablish and make sustainable the livelihood of people, and make the communities resilient to future natural disasters through capacity and livelihood training.
Melody Asia, PMPI’s Community Development Facilitator for Project Pagbangon, said before Yolanda struck, the people on the two islands are already vulnerable to natural calamities. Poverty is also prevalent because of unsustainable farming and fishing. Through partnership with people’s organizations, PMPI being a development organization, promotes coastal resource management and sustainable agriculture practices based on the recommendation of experts tapped to help address the problem. “We can still bring back sustainable agriculture. There is upland rice farming. PMPI, through its people’s organizations partners, distributed seeds, which farmers planted last year,” Asia said partly in Filipino.
A year after the project installed artificial reefs, fishery production increased from an average of 1 kg to 3 kg a day, said Asela Sevilla, president of Habag Fisherfolk Association based on Homonhon Island. The group, through Sentro para sa Ikauunland ng Katutubong Agham at Teknolohiya Inc. (Sikat), also distributed fishing gear and trained fishermen on the protection of their spawning grounds of fish and other marine life around Homonhon Island.
“GMRPLS is very important because it is the source of our livelihood. That is why protecting it is very important. Through Project Pagbangon, PMPI and Sikat have been helping us. They distributed fishing gears and planted artificial reefs in many places,” Sevilla said.
Through Project Pagbangon, 468 artificial reefs in 12 barangays were constructed and deployed.
At the same time, fishermen groups in the were engaged in a series of orientation, planning and seminars to establish their own barangay coastal-resource management plan. PMPI also pursued partnership with the Philippine Coast Guard, the DENR, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource (BFAR) and local police to boost law enforcement activities. PMPI and its partners, thereby, were able to organize and strengthen the people’s organizations.
A total of 12 fishermen associations are now in place working for the protection of GMRPLS.
Still under siege
With or without mining, GMRPLS is under siege by destructive fishing activities. A post-Yolanda program launched by PMPI is trying to address the challenges faced by the people on the two islands.
Esguerra said they have been receiving reports of trawl encroaching on fishing grounds within GMRPLS.
“There are also fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide,” she added. The vicious cycle of unsustainable way of life must stop to protect the GMRPLS, Esguerra said. The PMPI will continue to find ways to help people on the two islands return to their sustainable way of life, hopefully, without mining, she added.
“There is still hope in Manicani and Homonhon Islands. All that is needed are assistance and training of the residents. Fishing is a very important aspect of the people’s lives in Guiuan,” Esguerra said.
Image credits: Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc.