An indigenous group has condemned Apex Mining Company for their apparent neglect of their workers and demanded that the firm be held accountable for the casualties during the February 6 landslide in Masara.
“Why did Apex Mining company continue its 24-hour mining operations, using three shifts of workers, during the weeks leading up to the Feb. 6 landslide, despite torrential rains and mass floods happening all over Davao region affecting 1,078,531 people?” the Sabokahan To Mo Lumad Kamalitanan (or Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women) said in a statement emailed to the media on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, the Department of Interior and Local Government – Management of the Dead and Missing (DILG-MDM) said that death toll is now at 71, while 47 more are still missing.
The landslide happened on Feb. 6 when the PAGASA weather bureau reported light to moderate rains in the Davao Region brought about by easterlies, or winds coming from the east.
Before that day, most parts of Mindanao, including the Davao Region, experienced heavy rains brought about by the trough of a low pressure area and shear line since early January, which forced many provinces to cancel classes and work for days.
The group questioned the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for not issuing a suspension order to Apex Mining Company when the latter said the landslide happened “outside the mine operations area.”
Sabokahan cited a 2020 study published in the International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) that “about 50% of human activities that cause landslides are mining activities and that these geo-hazards are experienced as cause of open pit, underground and quarrying systems of mining.”
It added that “the Filipino people can testify to how the destruction of forest and its deep root system results in floods, landslides and mudslides, making them even more vulnerable during heavy rainfall and typhoon.”
The chief geologist of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Region 11, Beverly Brebante, on the other hand, said the landslide was an effect of the steep slope of the mountain, the volcaniclastic soil, and its very saturated soil quality.
Sabokahan pointed out that the Filipino people are not benefitting from the “mining of our natural resources.” Citing the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), the group said that in 2016, the mining industry’s contribution to the Philippines Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was a meager 0.79%, compared to the 9.65% GDP that agriculture brings in.
“While Apex earned ₱2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2023, the masses of Davao de Oro suffered rising costs of basic needs, stagnant low wages, competition with imported agricultural goods, and now, displacement by floods and landslide,” the group stated.
Apex Mining, in its press releases, has claimed that it has been coordinating with concerned government agencies “for rescue operations—both in taking the injured to hospitals and evacuating affected residents” and is thus “on limited operations.” (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
