Agno peasants after the floods:
Looking for Gold Nuggets in Flooded Fields

Village farmers gathered and recalled the raging dam waters coming that August 26 morning.  The rushing water was murky with silt from upstream mining operations and the soil eroded by the storm rains.  It was so loud and mighty, they recalled, that it uprooted four fully-grown mangoes.

BY LYN V. RAMO
NORTHERN DISPATCH
Posted by Bulatlat  

Last week, Nordis found Tatang Anton panning for gold in one portion of his flooded field.  He was hoping that the Agno River brought him and wife Vicenta, 66, enough gold dust so he could repay the debts he incurred.

He and his wife were able to get half a gram of gold dust in two days, which they sold at P480 per gram. The amount was still too modest for a two-day toil but, still, it was enough for them to buy some rice. 

Tatang Anton was among the many community folk that headed for the river bank to pan for gold and hoped to earn just enough to buy food and perhaps a bit more to finance the next planting season. When the gold panning starts to dwindle, people will go back to the rice fields to harvest whatever the floods have left.

Tatang Anton however prefers his rice fields to the gold dusts the river swept into the riverbank, which San Manuel folk now pan. 

“Maymayat latta ti talon ta kinanayon nga adda koma dita.  Ti balitok ket maibus.  Inton awanen ti tudo, awanen ti balitok iti igid ti karayan” (The rice fields are always better because it will always be there. Gold dust will soon be gone. When there are no more rains, there will be no more gold to be found in the riverbanks.), Tatang Anton laments.

Same fate

Like Tatang Anton, other San Vicente East farmers here had the same fate when Agno floodwaters swept through the province in mid-August. 

Some villagers were surprised that the dam was not able to contain the floodwaters from Ambuklao and Binga dams in Benguet.  In fact, San Vicente experienced the worst floods in many years. Others blamed the government for giving them false hopes on the capability of the dam to hold back flooding.

“Kunada nga uray 10 a bagyo ket saan kami a malayos.  Apay ngay a tallo aldaw laeng a tudo ket kinnanna aminen a taltalon mi?” (They told us that even when 10 typhoons would come, we would not be flooded. How come our fields got flooded after only three days of rain?), San Vicente East Councilman Wilfredo Romeo said.

Like the Tucays, the councilman set for the Agno River to pan gold and see what could still be salvaged from his rice fields. He aired his barriomates’ fear that the area would be submerged totally when the government pushes through with the rumored irrigation canal which would pass through San Vicente. 

“Maikatlonto a dike dayta no matultuloy” (That will be the third dike if it pushes through), he said pointing to the old dikes which are supposedly protecting them from the rage of Agno. 

In the nearby Sitio (sub-village) Camering, more rice fields were covered with silt from the released dam water. Unlike the waters that flooded Tatang Anton’s field, these waters were not gold-laden.

So fast

Residents said the water rose so fast that no rubber boat reached the residents in time.  The people also stayed put in the community defying government advice to relocate. 

“Kasla met insadyada a malayos kami tapno panawan mi daytoy a lugar” (It looked like they caused the flooding for us to leave this place), an unnamed resident said.  He added that unless their claims for improvements on the land are settled by the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) and the National Power Corporation (NPC), people could not just leave.

Land within lots 10 and 11 still await payment two years after the dam was officially turned over by its builders to the SRPC.  

The area is where a few families resettled after their farms were used as a quarry site for the construction of the giant dam in the late 1990s.  But Camering, residents surmise, will again be up for expropriation for a dam-related project.   Some say it will be used as a demonstration field for agricultural experimentation. Others say the irrigation dikes may pass through it.  Whatever it is, people are not so sure. One thing is certain: it was not discussed with them.  

People gathered and recalled the raging dam waters coming that August 26 morning.  The rushing water was murky with silt from upstream mining operations and the soil eroded by the storm rains.  It was so loud and mighty, they recalled, that it uprooted four fully-grown mangoes.

Field personnel of the Department of Agriculture (DA) visited the area on September 17 and were apparently making an assessment of the typhoon damages on agriculture.  Residents, however, have become wary of the calamity fund, which they hope would fall into the right hands. 

Like Tatang Anton and Kagawad Romeo, the residents of Camering are waiting what is in store for them now that the promise of the San Roque Dam for a floodless Pangasinan was just broken. Nordis/Bulatlat

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