by Lovely A. Carillo
WHAT could be a more pitiful and unfair situation than not being able to enjoy the fruits of one’s discovery?
This is the greatest frustration of Mandaya tribesman Camilo Banad, who first discovered tiny nuggets of gold in September of 1983 in a thickly forested land adjacent to the Naboc River in Mt. Diwata (a.k.a. Mt. Diwalwal) in Monkayo, Compostela Province.
Banad’s discovery set off the infamous gold rush in Mt. Diwata, which made millionaires out of a few intrepid speculators, and billionaires of some multinationals. It was also responsible for the ballooning of Mt. Diwata’s population to 125,000, and the tag “Wild, Wild West” attached to the gold-rich area in the aftermath of violence spawned by greed for instant wealth.
Yet, 26 years after his discovery of gold in Mt. Diwata, Camilo Banad can hardly fend for himself and his family while many of those who came after him now own fat bank accounts, live in air-conditioned comfort inside gated properties and drive high-octane guzzling SUVs.
“Wala man mi nadato diha, Datu lang sa pangalan (we did not become rich from Mt. Diwalwal’s gold; I am called ‘Datu’ in name only),” Banad said during a press conference held at the Museo Dabawenyo in Davao City as part of the special exhibit and lecture forum dubbed Bulawan which was held to showcase the significance and distinct contribution of gold to the people of this part of Mindanao.
It is ironic that the man who discovered gold in Mt. Diwata cannot even find a decent livelihood at the very same place where a few, more adventurous go-getters found their personal El Dorado. To think that it was Banad’s group which first panned for gold in the waters that drained from the mountainside.
Today, Mt. Diwata remains almost “as is, where is” — a sprawling community of hovel-like structures, makeshift houses of wood mostly, many perched dangerously on multi-level landslide-prone hillsides. The gold was for taking away, not for local development. The more than two decades since the discovery of the precious metal, countless lives have been lost in tunnel cave-ins, landslides, not to mention killings Wild, Wild West style sparked by the greed for gold.
The worst disaster in Diwalwal occurred on May 30, 1989 when sitio Balite was hit by a combination of bar-down, cave-in, landslide and fire which resulted in the loss of anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 lives. The period after that was characterized by a totally different ballgame in Diwalwal mining which virtually veered away from the previous “follow the vein principle”.
Mt. Diwata barangay captain Franco Tito said that despite Banad’s situation, the government has not been remiss in giving the indigenous peoples their share of Diwalwal. He said at least 900 hectares have been given by the government to the four groups of tribal people in Diwalwal.
The four tribal — Mandaya, Manobo, Manguangan, and Dibabawon — signed last June 17 a 10-year operating agreement with the Philippine Mining Development Corporation. The tribes were each awarded a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title for the 8,100 hectare mining site.
Under the agreement, the tribal groups will be paid a five percent cut from all the gross sales of gold and other minerals extracted from the area in the form of royalty.
The government’s solution to the Diwalwal problem was to declare it as a Mineral Reservation Area on November 25, 2002. Executive Order 217, which was issued on June 17, 2003, also gave the government the power to take over Mt. Diwata’s mining operations. The EO created the National Task Force Diwalwal headed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
With their new-found right to share in Mt. Diwata’s bounty, Tito urged the tribal groups to look for Filipino financiers only and shun multinationals.
A Mines and Geosciences Bureau study shows that as much as 20 grams of gold were extracted per ton of ore at the height of the gold rush in the area. Today, this has been reduced to only five or three grams of gold per ton.
Mt. Diwata has remained one of the literal goldmines, not only in Compostela Valley Province but also in the country. But for its discoverer, Camilo Banad, he would rather give way to the other more aggressive members of the indigenous people of Diwalwal so that he can lead a poor, but peaceful, life.
Meanwhile, the municipality of Monkayo (ComVal) is poised to become Mindanao’s jewelry center.
The local government ready to fulfill its role of making a difference in the lives of as many local inhabitants as possible by engaging in the processing of, and adding value, to the raw material for which Compostela Valley Province is most famous for — gold.
Monkayo sits in an area proximate to gold-rich Diwalwal, but instead of joining the gold rush and mining for gold, the local residents are encouraged to make use of gold to propel the growth of the municipality’s jewelry making industry.
The municipality government has a grandiose plan for its jewelry making industry and it intends to make this possible through the Jewelry Making Skill Training cum Enterprise Development Project. Some of the jewelries created by the municipality’s jewelers were put on display during the Mindanao Trade Expo held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from August 14 to 16.
“We have already trained 60 residents, including six persons with disability (PWD),” Monkayo jewelry development coordinator Joan Cabunoc-Pintal said, adding that 25 of these graduates started their own jewelry making business in Diwalwal, right where the gold is.
Each of the PWDs can produce four bracelets with intricate designs on a daily basis, while the other graduates can produce at least ten assorted pieces of jewelry consisting of bracelets and rings on a daily basis.
Pintal brought a sample matching bracelet and ring produced by the new graduates. The jewelry set boasts of an intricate design, with the 22-karat bracelet weighing 11.8 grams valued at P18,000 and the 22-karat ring weighing 5.5 grams valued at P5,000. The jewelers are paid P85 for every gram of jewelry produced. The ring can be completed in two hours, while the bracelet takes about four hours.
While their jewelry production has increased due to the additional jewelers starting January this year, Pintal said they still experience difficulty in coping with the orders since demand for their products has doubled, with orders coming from as far as Metro Manila.
Pintal said they have to train more jewelers to remedy the shortage the area and their inability to cope with demand. “We cannot even satisfy as much as 60% of the demand from Metro Manila,” she said.
Bulawan Junction
She said they need a total of 100 artisans or jewelers in time for the establishment of the Bulawan Junction by 2010.
The Junction, which will be put up in barangay Olaycon in poblacion Monkayo, is seen as a welcome landmark for the municipality, not only to welcome visitors but also to show the world that the municipality is ready to become the jewelry center of Mindanao.
Pintal said Bulawan Junction will be built on a 10-hectare area and will include a circular trade center, a museum, and a tourism information center which will be funded by former Pampanga governor Mark Lapid. It will also have shops and sales booths.
The so-called Circular Jewelry Trade Center building will be a two-storey building which will house the production area at the lower level and the training center in the upper level. She added that Senator Peter Cayetano has already committed P12 million for the building construction.
Monkayo’s jewelry making industry started with basically nothing. However, they got P1 million from the Poverty Free Zone Program of the Department of Labor and Employment. The financial support for Monkayo’s jewelry program keeps pouring in.
The provincial government under Gov. Arturo Uy granted them support to the tune of P1 million annually starting in March of 2008 for the purchase of state-of- the-art equipment for jewelry production. Among the newly-procured machines are an engraver, the Kerr Brand casting machine, the Foredom which costs P30,000 each for soldering and a mini motor.
Financial support is also expected from various agencies to include P500.000 from the Philippine Mining Development Corporation for the purchase of equipment, P100,000 from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for training and P2 million from Rep. Manuel Zamora for the construction of sales booths.
The common gripe among the residents of Compostela Valley is the lack of improvement in their lives despite their land being the center of gold mining. Unlike the gold rush where only the very daring or the very rich were benefited, the development of Monkayo’s jewelry making industry aims to provide skills, capability building and livelihood projects for its people, which hopefully, will become sustainable to feed not just one mouth but a whole province.
