Environmental trouble looms over Lobo Indigenous People

The Almagan Mining Corporation lately is trying to wrest control of the Lobo Barangay in Kibungan by writing the Fisher folks of the abandoned mine open pit to vacate the lake and remove their fish cages. When the mine was abandoned in 1984 the open pit was filled with water so that the people whose properties were swallowed by the mining pit decided to utilize the lake for fish production. The bigger trouble surfaced when Almagan told the IPs that they are getting back their 1500 hectares of mining claims from the occupants. They said that 120 people sold their properties to them and they have the right to occupy these properties again because it is theirs. But the IPs claim that these properties were not sold but they were just rented and the rents were never given and some were just paid partially.

It will be recalled that in 1972, the Western Minolco operated a mine at Lobo Kibungan and abandoned it in 1984. The company through a deed of assignment transferred its rights to Dagama Mining Resources Incorporated. Then when the application of Dagama expired sometime in 2012, they sold their rights to Almagan Mining Corporation. Now Almagan who is interested in reopening the mines  is threatening the occupant IPs with eviction.

In an interview with Randy Abellera, who is an IP leader in the community, he said that Almagan has no right to operate the abandoned mines in Lobo because they have destroyed the land and never rehabilitated the same. The mines never restored the water resources that were depleted and the agricultural lands were buried under tons of stones and earth. He said further that the company should not be just writing letters to warn the inhabitants of an impending eviction but should meet them in an assembly so that the IPs can demand payment of unpaid rents and damage to properties that they have incurred in operating the Mines. Lastly he said that the Bureau of Fisheries and aquatic resources who is in charge of the fish culture on the abandoned mine pit should not be the appropriate agency to negotiate the plight of the fisher folks but it should be the whole community of Lobo.