UNTIL the late 60s the Boac River was romanticized by Boakenos in accounts of Balanguingui pirates entering the deep tributary on their swift boats to rape and plunder the town; and one about how its patroness, "Maria, Ina ng Biglang Awa", once caused a miracle when the river so swelled after days of heavy rain. When her image was brought by the devotees atop the fortress wall protecting the old church and held facing the river, the rain, so the story goes, stopped and the sun shone dramatically.In those years, the river was very much alive with various endemic fresh water species: hito, udyangkot, palo, tughod, igat, carpa, dapa, banak, dalag, manitis and there were bagtok, hipon, butot, suso and kuhol. It was an integral part of the taga-bayan and the taga-Ilaya's daily lives where they bathed, washed clothes and caught fish for the family, poor or rich.
All that changed one morning when without a drop of rain falling they found the river murky and flooded. After a couple of days the water cleared up, but would become discolored again. Then it would take a week before the river, now taking on a strange pungent smell and dismal color, would clear up anew. But time soon came when the water got to be permanently discoloreed and all life therein ceased.
People knew the cause but could not grasp the whole picture as news and information came in trickles. "Nagapaawas na naman ang Marcopper" evolved into "inagapaawasan na ngani ng Marcopper!"
In those years of darkness that eventually ushered in the Martial Law regime, the poor felt even more powerless and catchwords like "environmental awareness" and "ecology" were unheard of. Dependence on government leaders, who held the real power, for intervention, judgment, action or non-action on any matter was the order of the day. Complacency must have firmed up roots in those years.
Thus, at the turn of the 70s Boac River already experienced death. The people could only gaze at it with pity and that took a long time. But there was one, nonetheless, whose name has been lost for now, who made an attempt to make the outside world aware of the river's fate; that all biological life therein have ceased, stolen from the poor barangay dwellers, especially. He/she wrote about the river's deah in an article published in a national magazine.
That would soon be followed by a 1971 report from the fisheries Utilization Division of the then Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources about the pollution of the rivers of Boac and Mogpog. Then it surfaced that a smaller stream near the mines crossing Labo and Hinapulan that flows into the Boac River was where flowed all the acid-mixed sludge from the mines.
The river rehabilitation message must have tediously crept and filtered through somehow. It would take some five years before Marcopper would address that issue by finally sealing the Tapian Pit drainage tunnel that spewed clay and slime directly into the tributary.
Then, even with the perennial El Nino onslaught, increased siltation, and without dredging, gradually the river was resuscitated, its disturbed ecosystem brought back to life, somewhat. But it was terribly bad news elsewhere on the island - for the fisherfolks of Calancan BAy area north of Sta. Cruz - the new minewaste dump.
Beginning in 1975, a piping system was put up by the mines to dump the tailings on the causeway built in Calancan, later on both sides of the beaches of the causeway when they could not be contained anymore.
MARCH 24, 1996The island of Marinduque where a southern volcano lies, has active fault lines. Earthquake tremors are felt here from time to time. Those fault lines are locate beneath the highest mountains of Santa Cruz and the southwestern portion bisecting the island along the forest areas of Boac and Torrijos. The Santa Cruz fault line crosses the geographical center of the island - where directly above lies Marcopper's Tapian Pit.
In August 1995, residents near the mines were alarmed, not by an earthquake but by seepage from the drainage tunnel connected to the Tapian pit. The company drilled a series of holes into the tunnel to plug it. Marcopper claimed to the municipal authorities that remedial measures taken had solved the problem but the people's apprehension remained.
On March 17 an earthquake that registered 3.2 on the Richter Scale was felt on the island. Seven days later, on March 24, 1996, in what was considered one of the harshest man-made environmental disaster, news came. After more than two sleepy decades, the heavily silted yet revivified Boac River was dealt a fatal blow. More dramatic than its previous episode it was, international media were appalled.
The spillage of mine tailings from the Tapian Pit in the millions of tonnes through the very same drainage tunnel that had once killed it, was great for television this time. The concrete sealing of the tunnel that had given hope to the river was flawed.
And the litany of concerned voices from government officials, politicians, the multi-stakeholders, environmentalists, parishioners, scientific experts and the tri-media reverberated in the small municipality. The people of Mogpog, too, had the opportunity to air their similar plight and remembered the common history of their two gentle rivers.
Talks about the episode intensified, the mines cursed and discussions reached the halls of the Philippine Senate and Congress. Three presidents have since been installed into power, the river rehabilitation and the disposal of tailings deposited on the river is still unresolved today, its fate getting more uncertain each day.
As if taking into account past attitudes when confronted by a similar situation such as that when the river suffered a similar assault in the 70s, the mining company soon after the tragedy and sadly, with specific encouragement even from top environmental authorities supposed to be firm and first in implementing pro-environmental policies appeared bent on merely awaiting nature's stronger forces to drive all the tailings to the sea and to oblivion.
An environmental official graced the cover of a popular magazine for an interview where he proclaimed that given just four years, natural forces would revive the river. Various sectors howled in protest. Then a dredged channel was constructed near the mouth of the river.
Marcopper then proposed to the DENR the submarine placement of redredged channel tailings to finally address the problem. The move was supported by certain members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan that triggered off a people's rally on October 3, 1997 to denounce the 'politically-inspired' move.
DENR took a turn around and in denying the company's application stated that "such submarine disposal is not the most expeditious and appropriate method at this time." The department further declared thus: "we would prefer a land-based option with appropriate procedure that would expeditiously return Makulapnit and Boac Rivers to an environmentally and socially acceptable condition." At this point the Boac River dredged channel has been filled up and could no longer absorb the tailings from upstream.
Placer Dome Technical Services, Inc., in a move reminiscent of the old 'public relations' strategy many islanders were only too familiar with, actively engaged in supporting affected communities through micro-credit projects, agri-enterprise projects, development of cooperatives and medium-term remediation measures for the clean-up of Boac River.
Then in December 2001, apparently without consultations with the multi-stakeholders and local governments, PDTS halted its activities and closed down its operations in the municipality. Discussions related to remaining unpaid damage claims from the affected families ensued. This would occupy the energy and focus of the Marcopper-Environmental Guarantee Fund Committee (Marcopper-EGF), tasked to resolve all problems ensuing from the tailings spill. Represented in the EGF are the DENR. the Office of the Governor, Marcopper and the Office of the Mayor (Boac), hardly the vaunted "broadly representative committee" the mine-owners have often told.
(Sunset at Tablas Strait taken from Amoingon)TABLAS STRAIT
The island of Marinduque is affected by two to three out of the average of 24 typhoons that enter the archipelago in a seasonal distribution in June and October through December. Thus with help from heavy rains and occaasional storms the Boac River is clearing up and cleaning up. Today, she is probably on the surface no longer biologically dead as the old fishes and shrimps have resurfaced first upstream, and have now spread downstream. The rural dwellers inspite of initially stern warnings from local authorities not to catch the contaminated fishes are catching them for food again. Can't reason with hunger.
Yet, six million cubic meters of tailings residue still occupy the entire 27 kilometer length of the river. As early as three months after the tragedy, dissolved copper surfaced in some areas along the course. Nothing could stop the wind and rain from causing the dreaded acidification in some river bed areas. Threats to health, lives and property appear more serious now.
All rivers run and finally find their way to the waiting sea. Tablas Strait, life and second home to thousands of Mindoro, Marinduque, Batangas, Quezon and Romblon fishermen, as the silent recipient of daily soses of dreadful tailing now shivers as the pitiful and ultimate sink.
