Priest Blames Typhoon Deaths On Mining

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (UCAN) --

A priest in Albay province, southeast of Manila, blames a mining operation for fatal landslides and possibly toxic spills during a recent typhoon, but a company lawyer rejects the allegations.

On Dec. 11, Father Felino Bugauisan told UCA News his parish had buried 13 adults and children, including the unborn child of a pregnant woman among the victims. He said they were killed on Nov. 30 afternoon, at the height of Typhoon Durian, when floodwaters rose, and mud and boulders from an area near the mine site on Rapu-Rapu Island wreaked havoc on two nearby villages.

Father Bugauisan, of the Society of Our Lady of the Trinity, serves as assistant parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker Parish on Rapu-Rapu, about 365 kilometers southeast of Manila, where Lafayette Mining Incorporated, a joint Australian and Philippine venture, runs a metal-mining operation.

His parish is among the 46 that belong to Legazpi diocese, which covers Albay, where 93 percent of 1.21 million people are Catholics. The priest was in the Manila area in early December to follow up a court petition for a temporary restraining order to stop mining activities on Rapu-Rapu, east of the mainland part of Albay and Sorsogon province.

The Lafayette mining site is near the villages of Malobago and Tinopan. A landslide engulfed houses in Malobago after a retaining wall on the Lafayette site collapsed during the typhoon, according to Legazpi priests.
Father Bugauisan said Merildo David, who was rescued from the landslide, suffered leg and arm injuries. David's daughter and two nieces died after being trapped in debris that buried his house.

Radio reports reaching Legazpi City said that at least 24 people might have been trapped in landslides, according to Father Paulo Barandon, who heads relief operations for the diocese. He spoke with UCA News on Dec. 11 from Legazpi City, 335 kilometers southeast of Manila.

Lafayette mining structures also were damaged by the storm, Father Bugauisan reported. He said water from holding ponds in some parts of the site overflowed during heavy rain, and he is concerned that some of the pools holding toxic mine tailings may have collapsed. He also spoke of damage the mine waste brought to the port facility below the open-pit mine.

In the priest's view, Lafayette's "constant dynamite blasting, denudation of the mountainous cover and open-pit type mining operations exacerbated" the impact of Typhoon Durian. "Rapu-Rapu is in a typhoon belt and the open-pit mining they use will always end in disaster," he maintained.

In May a commission the government set up with Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon as its head recommended closing the mine until Lafayette developed "new technology" that could guarantee safer operations.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had created the commission to investigate two Lafayette tailings spills that caused health problems and a massive fish kill as a result of two spills on Oct. 11 and 31, 2005.

However, in June the environment department allowed Lafayette to resume operations on a test basis after it paid a 10.7-million- peso (US$ 214,000) fine. The test permit was then extended.

In Manila, Lafayette spokesman Bayani Agabin, a lawyer, told UCA News Lafayette shut down operations after Typhoon Durian while restoring electricity and buildings destroyed by typhoon winds. However, he insisted there was no environmental damage at the mine site.

"Let me stress the damage is to the physical plant, and there is no recorded damage to the environment," the lawyer stated.

He said he was unaware of any claims made by Father Bugauisan related to typhoon damage but added that if the priest says the landslides were caused by Lafayette's operations, then the claim has no basis.

According to Agabin, "The area where the landslides occurred is two kilometers and two ridges away from the mine site." He also said Lafayette rescuers "were the first to respond and pulled out two buried victims."

As of Dec. 14, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported 579 people killed and 608 missing from Typhoon Durian. All search operations for people buried in mudslides ended that day. In the Bicol peninsula, where Albay is located, some 165,484 homes were reported destroyed and 208,573 damaged.