SANTA CRUZ, Zambales—A group calling for an end to destructive mining practices in this municipality has urged the government to facilitate the payment of compensation to residents whose properties and sources of livelihood were adversely affected by nickel mining operations here.
According to the Concerned Citizens of Santa Cruz, Zambales (CCOS), the group had filed a claim for compensation on behalf of the affected residents as early as November 2012 but this has not yet been acted upon by concerned offices.
“Four years after their farms and one year after their fishponds were buried with nickel laterite, farmers and fishpond operators have yet to receive any single centavo for the loss of their income,” said Dr. Benito Molino, who sits as CCOS chairman.
“This is justice delayed and justice denied,” Molino said in a news statement released to the media on Wednesday. “The people have lost their income since 2011. Justice is overdue. The government should order the payment of all affected peoples of Santa Cruz now,” he added.
Molino said the problem started about eight years ago when A3UNA, which was later renamed Shangfil, began mining for nickel in the foothills of Santa Cruz. Soon enough, four other firms followed suit.
Shangfil had since stopped its operations but the combined operations of the remaining firms “led to widespread destruction of the environment, with pollution reaching as far as 30 nautical miles off the shoreline,” Molino said.
He added that when heavy rains washed down soil from the mining areas in 2011, at least 30 hectares of farms were totally and partially buried with nickel laterite. Even irrigation water in nearby areas was found to have high nickel content that was at least 10 times more than the acceptable level.
“This kind of problem continued in 2012 up to 2014,” the CCOS official noted, adding that it resulted in a marked decline in palay harvest, with the usual yield of 100 cavans per hectare going down to 70 cavans.
Meanwhile, about 120 hectares of fishpond were affected, he said, depriving operators of at least P300,000 in net income per hectare per year.