Blaans in Tampakan mine site: from corn farming to illegal mining
TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato (MindaNews /23 Feb) – “Wala na kaayo mag mais sa taga-tribu kay mag banlas na lang (Most of the Blaans don’t like to go into corn farming anymore because they earn more from sluice mining).
Julito, a long-time Blaan resident of “Bong Mal, said it’s difficult to get corn farm laborers now because most would rather try their luck in banlas as banlaseros. “If they’re fortunate, they could earn thousands of pesos a day compared to P250 per day as a farmhand,” he told a MindaNews team visiting the mining tenement here of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI), developer of the Tampakan project, the largest untapped copper and gold minefield in Southeast Asia and one of the largest of its kind globally.
Two other sources, whose names are withheld for security reasons, corroborated the account that the highly-destructive banlas mining operations within the mines development site have remained unabated despite efforts by local authorities to stop the illegal mining.
“Katas sang banlas (Benefits from banlas mining),” Julito said, pointing to several new houses that would likely make visitors assume they are owned by overseas Filipino workers.
These houses made of concrete have replaced those made of wood and light materials in several Blaan hamlets straddling Bong Mal, one of the indigenous cultural communities bordering the mountains of Tampakan in South Cotabato and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.
Within the last five years, banlas mining has changed the lives of several Blaan families in Bong Mal, allowing them to build better houses, buy motorcycles, smart phones, and put up sari-sari stores, among others.
Gold per gram
A gram of gold is bought between P3,500 to P4,000 per gram by black market traders operating in the mountains of Tampakan, sources said.
The buying price of 22-karat gold is at P4,908 per gram as of Sunday, February 23, according to livepriceofgold.com.
When MindaNews visited the mining area on January 29, only a few men could be seen in the communities. Sources said the men were out for banlas operations.
In one household, rolls of plastic hoses used in banlas operations were seen stacked in front of the house, an indication of involvement in the banlas operations.
The changes in the economic situation of the Blaans, however, came at a high cost: the environment and reportedly the livelihood of farmers in the lowlands.
Banlas or sluice mining, a highly-destructive mining method, involves the pouring of large amounts of water using high-pressure water jets on a mountain’s surface to loosen the soil and rocks and extract the gold ore, and then pan them with mercury.
From T’boli to Tampakan
Banlas mining was first practiced in the gold-rush town of T’boli, South Cotabato in the early 2000s, particularly in Barangay Kematu.
In Tampakan in April 2011, three banlaseros were buried alive in a landslide in Sitio Bong Anten, Barangay Pula Bato, one of the villages within the Tampakan project.
On April 4, 2017, the website of the provincial government of South Cotabato reported that the Provincial Development Council (PDC) tackled in its regular quarterly meeting the “continuous illegal ‘banlas’ mining” in Tampakan, particularly in Sitio Kampo Kilot in Barangay Pula-Bato.
The barangay council of Pula Bato in its presentation said banlas mining started as early as 2007 and a number of raids were conducted by authorities between 2008 and 2013 that eventually led to the establishment of an Amy/CAA detachment in the area.
The barangay council added that a Cease and Desist order was issued by the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board chaired by then Mines and Geosciences Bureau regional director Constancio Paye in 2015 after they reported the illegal mining activities in their barangay but the illegal mining operations continued, leading to a raid in December 2016.
The barangay council recommended to the PDC the re-establishment of an Army detachment in the area, assistance in the form of sustainable livelihood programs to farmers, rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads, creation of an inter-agency monitoring team and to allow mining in the area so that banlas mining will stop.
Over the years, banlas operations were kept on check with authorities putting up military checkpoints. The military presence, however, was eventually reduced in the last 10 years as the mining firm minimized its activities on the ground, hampered by the open-pit ban imposed by the provincial government of South Cotabato in 2010.
In July 2019, Tampakan Mayor Leonard Escobillo and police authorities raided a banlas mining site in Sitio Kampo Kilot in Barangay Pula Bato.
Upon arrival at the site, the troops recovered and destroyed large sluice boxes and other mining paraphernalia, the Tampakan LGU posted on its Facebook page.
“No illegal miners were apprehended on the site,” it said.
No arrests
Last December 12, the local government of Tampakan and a team from the military, police and the South Cotabato Provincial Environment and Management Office (PEMO), conducted yet another raid on banlas operations in Sitio Kampo Kilot which was raided in July 2019 by the mayor and the police and Bong Antem in Barangay Pula Bato where three banlaseros were buried in a landslide in April 2011, and Sitio Aspak in Barangay Tablu.
No one was arrested based on the report issued by the local government.
About 35 bunkhouses made of trapal, 50 sluice boxes and several other materials found in the banlassites were destroyed, the Tampakan municipal environment office, headed by Eileen Estrada, said in its report.
In a phone interview in April 2023, Engr. Efren Carido, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Region 12, confirmed that banlas operations continued in the mining tenement of SMI.
He told MindaNews that arresting illegal miners proved to be difficult as they were being alerted by their cohorts before authorities could reach the area.
“Before we could even reach the place, the illegal miners would know we are coming through their informants who alert them using text messages or calls,” he said.
Portions of the Tampakan project have piso internet wi-fi or phone signals for communication. The piso wi-fi connections abound there after the mining tenement was connected to the electric grid five years ago.
3 hectares destroyed
Carido said in April 2023 that some “three hectares” of the mountain have been destroyed by sluice mining.
MindaNews sought him for an update on February 13, in Koronadal City but he declined, pending clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) central office in Quezon City.
Also in April 2023, PEMO head Siegfred Flaviano expressed alarm on the presence of armed men allegedly involved in the illegal mining operations within the Tampakan project.
“[We could hear] warning shots every time we conducted monitoring and surveillance in the area,” he said in a statement then.
Flaviano said he already brought the matter to the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB).
MindaNews sought Flaviano for an interview last week but he was on leave. But Agnes Castañares, chief of the PEMO’s small scale and quarry operations unit, told MindaNews on February 13 that banlasoperations within SMI’s mining tenement have worsened over the years, but could not give the extent of damage in hectares as banlas mining is being done in different areas.
“Pipila na ka bukid ang na-washed out ang ila portions… Halos wala untat ang pagbanlas didto(Several portions of the mountains have already been washed out … Banlas mining operations have become rampant),” she said.
Castañares reiterated Carido’s pronouncement in April 2023 that authorities have already informed SMI about the resurgence of illegal mining operations within its tenement.
The mining firm is mainly responsible to protect its tenement from illegal mining activities, Carido said.
Peace and security concern
Videos that circulated on Facebook last year showed rivers in Columbio in Sultan Kudarat and Tampakan and Koronadal City in South Cotabato turning murky brown, allegedly caused by banlasoperations. Local media reports said the silt affected some farmlands fed upon by waters from the rivers.
Castañares said that both the PPOC and the PMRB acknowledged the proliferation of banlas mining within the Tampakan project area and have been trying to address it by conducting regular intelligence monitoring and surprise raids.
But there’s an attendant peace and security concern in addressing the problem, she added.
“We could hear gunshots while proceeding to the banlas mining sites. Everybody is gone even before the team could arrive,” Castañares said.
MindaNews sources said that some banlaseros used the money earned from their illegal activity to arm themselves.
They also said that banlas mining here is difficult to stop because some politicians, military and police personnel are allegedly involved.
Military, police, local officials
Speaking in Ilonggo, Mayor Leonard Escobillo, who is seeking for a third term in the May 2025 elections, confirmed that illegal banlas operations remain rampant within the area of the Tampakan project.
He said they have suspicions that military and police personnel and local officials could be involved in the illegal mining operations.
“Based on circumstances, yes. But we don’t have a concrete proof,” he told MindaNews over the phone on February 20.
According to him, every time he convenes a meeting of the Peace and Order Council, which is composed of military, police and local officials, to discuss the banlas problem, information would leak around town a “few moments later.”
He also said the alleged involvement of the police, military and local officials came to light with the presence before of detachments, which is mostly manned by CAFGU members supervised by the military or the police, near the banlas sites.
It seems that there were protectors from these posts of the banlas operations because the illegal miners would know ahead of an impending raid, Escobillo added.
The mayor admitted the local government unit is having a hard time addressing the banlas operations with its limited resources, adding a sustained inter-agency approach is needed to combat the problem.
Castañares said the banlaseros they had arrested — mostly laborers — would not name their financiers.
Last year, at least six persons were charged with theft of minerals after they were caught transporting gold ore in Tampakan town.
But they were freed after posting a bail bond of P6,000 each, Castañares said.
SMI eyes full operations by 2026
MindaNews sought SMI for comment through an e-mail sent on February10 and followed it up on February 19 but the firm has yet to respond.
SMI has yet to start commercial operations for the Tampakan project since it was officially launched in the town on January 17, 2003.
Since then, it has been facing staunch opposition from the local Catholic church and allied organizations on concerns over the environment, food security, health and human rights.
SMI is eyeing to commence full-swing operations in 2026, retired military general Roy Deveraturda disclosed the company’s plan with Metro Manila-based media in April 2023.
The company has been paying lands leased by Blaans who agreed to have their areas included in the mining project at 6,400 pesos per hectare a year for 25 years (a total of P160,000 for the lease period). The annual lease translates to 533 pesos per hectare per month. Aside from the rent paid in full, the firm pays for the value of the crops or trees planted in the leased area.
The Tampakan project, according to the results of SMI’s exploration work, has the potential to yield an average of 375,000 metric tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold per annum in the 17-year life of the mine.
Open-pit mining is the most viable method to extract the shallow deposits of the large-scale mining project, the firm said.
In 2010, then South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes imposed a ban on open-pit mining. The provincial board lifted the prohibition in May 2022 but was vetoed by South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr.
However, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau noted that Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 does not ban open-pit mining method.
Tamayo had said the open-pit mining ban of the province would remain in effect unless revoked by the provincial board and approved by the governor.
Bishop Cerilo Casicas of the Diocese of Marbel, which has been staunchly opposing the Tampakan project, asserted that the open-pit ban imposed by the provincial government of South Cotabato must be followed.
He cited that Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 allows local government units to impose measures for their constituencies. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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