Environment

Davao?s Unsafe Beach Resorts Won?t Be Promoted: DOT

Nine beaches in the city failed? water-sampling tests
DAVAO CITY — Despite marketing Davao City as a premier islands-to-highland getaway and a land of cool highlands and sunny beaches, the Department of Tourism in Southern Mindanao will not promote beaches or resorts that fail to pass the safety standards set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

?DOT will not promote unsafe beaches. We respect DENR?s findings,? said Roger Layson, assistant regional director for DOT in Southern Mindanao.

Last Sunday at his weekly television show Gikan sa Masa, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte read a letter from the Center for Health Development Davao Region of the Inter-Regional Inter-Agency Committee. The letter contained the list of nine beaches in the city, which had failed the water-sampling test conducted by the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau.

The beaches were found to have high pathological contamination and indicated severe water pollution. All of these unsafe beaches were located along Davao City?s coastline.
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Duterte Paves Way for Implementation of Water Code

DAVAO CITY ? After five long years, the Davao City government is finally implementing the Water Resource Management and Protection Code of the city with the release of an executive order creating the body that will finalize the code?s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, through Executive Order 09, ordered the creation of the joint executive-legislative committee ?to study and review the implementing rules and regulations and recommend revisions and to submit the revised implementing rules and regulations necessary to effectively carry out the provisions of the code.?

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In Siocon, Subanens Continue Struggle Vs Canadian Mining Firm

Related story
Subanen supporters of TVI ask critics to ?leave us alone?; company says mining brought benefits to community

Contributed photo
Bishop Jose Manguiran of Dipolog leads the re-consecration of Mt. Canatuan

SIOCON, Zamboanga del Norte — For two years, timuay (tribal chief) Jose Anoy has not been able to set foot in his home. Home is Mt. Canatuan, the most sacred place for the 2,000 Subanen people, which has been encroached into by the mining firm Canada?s Toronto Ventures Inc (TVI) since 1994.

Anoy said that the TVI has prevented him from returning home because he refused to give consent for the company to mine 508 hectares located in the Subanen?s sacred land.

?The company offered me money before, and shares in their profits,? he recalled. ?Accepting this could have been easy, but being a timuay, I remained firm for the sake of the Subanen.?

His stand forced the company to lay it hard on Anoy — driving him away from his own home. Since then, TVI has taken over Mt. Canatuan, barricading the area with three checkpoints.

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Expert Warns of Davao Water Crisis Due to Plantations

DAVAO CITY — An environmental activist from Cebu City has warned about the wanton destruction of the upland watershed areas of Davao City disguised as development, saying this could deplete the city?s supply of clean and fresh water.

?You want to lose water? Put up plantations in your upland watershed areas and kiss your water goodbye,? said Aida Granert of the Cebu-based non-government organization Soil and Water Conservation Foundation Inc.

Granert was here Wednesday for the worldwide observation of Water Day. She shared information on how environmental fighters, government agencies, and other stakeholders in Davao can save the water sources of Davao based on Cebu?s own experiences.

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Diwalwal’s Never-Ending Tragedies

The series of violent incidents in Diwalwal last October – a huge fire, a gas poisoning, and a cave-in – could be part of the plot by vested-interest groups to drive small-scale miners out of Mount Diwalwal.

By Daisy C. Gonzales
davaotoday.com

DIWALWAL, the Philippines — Alma Placio, 33, looked exhausted. She just had a baby. Six days after the child was born, Alma lost her husband. On this day, she was at the mining company’s small office here, sitting in a corner.

Evidently grief-stricken, Alma sits calmly as she stared blankly at the television in front of her. The TV was showing images taken days before of a rescue operation inside one of the mining tunnels here, where several died. One of those who perished was Alma’s husband, Al.

Alma was new to this place, so was Al. The lure of Mount Diwalwal, however, was no stranger to them. Earlier this year, they left their home in Manila, where they had stayed for almost two decades, and found their way into this mountain village. Al’s brother had worked here and had convinced Al that he, like him, could work here as a “helper.”

Al went to Diwalwal ahead of his family. In June, Alma and her two children reunited with him. Little did Alma know that the reunion would be short-lived.

Alma’s husband was among the 31 declared to have died in the October 26 tragedy inside the mine tunnel operated by the JB Management and Mining Corp (JBMMC). The cave-in, which was said to be precipitated by an explosion, is the latest reminder here that the main issues about this contested gold-rush mountain village in Monkayo town, in Southern Mindanao, are far from resolved.

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