(Mogpog River photo courtesy of Allan Lissner)As the site of one of the country's finest natural harbors, the town of Mogpog, where Balancan Port is located, is the principal gateway to Marinduque. The effects of marine pollution, it is said, are more severe in coastal areas and more so in semi-enclosed marine waters.This appears to have been confirmed by the DENR's findings which showed that the mangrove areas along the Balanacan cove covering an area of 10 hectares called for urgent rehabilitation.
The first to realize the changes in their natural enviconment are the fisherfolks living in the area. By rationalizing their dwindling catch and common experience over years of fishing, they have the capacity to explain that port expansion and other developments that have occured in Balanacan, together with the pressure the increasing population exert on their environment, have contributed to these changes.
Thus, when a real-estate development company found the most inland part of the Balancan cove an ideal site for the establishment of a marine resort catering to the moneyed class, no amount of explaining that spanned a period of two years from 1997 could convince the people, especially the fisherfolks of the "big economic benefits" the marina development could spur in the municipality of Mogpog and beyond its borders.
By then, the private developers involved had acquired most of the land required for the project. Nevertheless, the many unresolved environmental issues that had confronted the people of Mogpog during the last decade, together with the spill-over of the 1996 Marcopper mine spill on their awareness, and eventually the loud protest rallies staged by the affected fisherfolks crying "destruction of our fishing grounds!" could not be silenced.
It was a case of bad timing. The developers and some public officials identified with the project kept their peace and decided to just wait for a more opportune time in the fuiture to pursue their splendid dream, if ever.
Meanwhile, vast areas of Balanacan, Malusak and Tarug, where severe cases of erosion have occured in the past could provide a picture of the fragile state of Mogpog's ecosystems.
MAGUILA-GUILA DAM
When Marcopper's Tapian Pit was completely mined out by 1990, the San Antonio project was immediately unfolded. This, after sn Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC), was granted to Marcopper. The latter bragged about the document as "the government's showcase of its new approach in ECC." The conditions included the disposal "of all tailings into the mined-out Tapian Pit."
The plan, however, involved strategies for the disposal of mine waste in a "safe and environmentally prudent manner." Mine waste is classified as waste rock and tailing. During pre-development of the new project, 19 million tonnes of overburden would be stripped, and 354 million tonnes of waste rock would be sent to three areas.
The largest waste dump area was the Maguila-guila valley (the other two being San Antonio and Catmon), and would eventually contain about 240 million tonnes of waste rock, soils and overburden.
An earth dam was thus, established in Maguila-guila to ensure the containment of silt from the mines. Initial protests were heard from the people of Mogpog inspite of the fact that they were given assurance by the mining company that it would never collapse and could withstand the strongest typhoon.
A year later, the earth dam collapsed when typhoon "Monang" hit the region. Mine waste in the millions of tonnes spilled into the rustic Mogpog River. The river right away was rendered biologically dead, alongside two children who were carried away by the rampaging waters to the sea. Coastal barangays west of Mogpog were the worst hit by the flood of mud.
When this occured, Boac River and all water tributaries on the island also swelled in a manner not seen in recent memory. Thus, people of the island-province were focused more in estimating the damage wrought on crops and property in their immediate surrounding.
In Boac, there was talk about a Marcopper dam collapsing at the height of the typhoon; there was talk in the nearby towns, too, about the panic that gripped the residents of central Mogpog who trooped to "Mataas na Bayan" to escape the rumored avalanche; and talk about how people feared to see their houses submerge in toxic waste.
When the avalanche did not come as they pictured it to be in their minds and conversations, the collapse of the dame was dismissed as a rumor. Investigation of the incident to feret out the truth was largely localized in the parochial municipality, and hushed. Absolutely nothing no report, no admission, was heard from the mining company.
Two years later, the people of Mogpog, irked by the unusual change on the river that once provided them with daily sustenance, still groped in the dark about what really had transpired.
In 1995, with backing from the local church and armed with water testing results from official Manila sources, the mining company was confronted in a meeting held at the municipio. The tests had shown that the river water was polluted. But Marcopper, claiming better and more reliable testing facilities at the minesite insisted that the river was not polluted. The parties involved therefore could not come to an agreement.
Never mind the water discoloration afflicting the river that ranged from peach and brown to gruesome red, and toxic green to gory violet that tempted a farmer to ask aloud during a public hearing: "ipainom kaya natin sa kanila?"
Never mind the oft-repeated and numerous reports of fishkills that were ignored outright each time. Because for now, the once life-sustaining Mogpog river now appears completely devoid of fish and shrimps and had long been declared by the Bureau of Soils unfit even for purposes of irrigation.
