Panay News: Semirara Mining's Violations

SEMIRARA MINING’S VIOLATIONS

SEMIRARA Mining Corporation has violated our environmental and mining laws with impunity.

Aside from seven miners who were buried alive, a confidential report said there are still unaccounted victims that have not been recovered from the 3,300-foot deep pit.

Bodies of five dead miners have been identified as Jan Riel Planca, Randy Tamparong, Richard Padernilla, Junjie Gomez and Leovigildo Porras.

According to Caluya Sangguniang Bayan member Ricky Laviga, before the incident, “several workers expressed fear of an impending collapse because it has been continuously raining for two days.”

“Yet, the management never bothered to check the top soil that showed signs of breaking up or loosening,” our source said.

“The owners of the mining firm was only after money, for their benefits, not for the safety of the lives of their workers,” a barangay official told Lapsus.

For 15 years that SMC has been digging coal in the island of Semirara, massive pollution has been going on around the area.

Corals and marine resources have been wantonly destroyed and there has been no rehabilitation on the part of the company.

We can’t understand why the provincial government of Antique has never done any measures to stop the massive destruction of its island and marine life.

Paging Gov. Boy Ex Javier!

ATTENTION MAYOR GENEVIEVE LIM REYES

WE want to call the attention of Caluya, Antique’s Mayor Genevieve Lim Reyes on what is happening in the island of Semirara, one of the barangays of her municipality.

The massive digging and extraction of coal and destruction that take place will soon erase the island from the map.

Worse, the owners of SMC, who are more interested in fattening their pockets, do not consider efforts to rehabilitate Semirara and protect the environment.

Many scientific reports would show that air and sea pollution principally caused by waste materials, including poisonous dust particles thrown to the air, contributed much to the recent disasters that have wreaked havoc on the country.

For the sake of human life, we urge you, Mayor Genevieve, to take harsh and immediate action against SMC by revoking its permits, and by urging the Sangguniang Bayan members to pass a resolution asking the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to revoke its licenses, and stop the company’s operations immediately.

The tons of money that DMCI pays your municipality or the province will never prolong our lives.

source