“Going to the site is not easy. The trails are very steep, coarse and slippery. Carriers should know how to properly balance their steps to avoid falling,” she said.

Mackie Bonite and Resbien Bogate, both 12 years old, also work in the quarry as carriers. Despite their very young age, they bring slabs weighing about eight kilos from the site to the roadside.

Bonite, an incoming Grade 4 student, said that he started working when he was 10 years old while Resbien Bogate, incoming Grade 6, began to work this summer.

“It is my family’s hardships in life that drives me to work in the mining site,” Bonite said.

“It is dangerous to walk on the trails since we carry heavy loads in our backs. Yet we have no choice but to work so we can help our parents, especially now that the opening of the school year is near,” Resbien Bogate said.

Despite her seemingly fragile physique, she said that she does not care about the heat of the sun. “What is important for me is I am able to help my family to earn a living.”

Other children said that they work in the mine as a sideline so that they could raise funds for enrolment in the opening of the school year.

They receive compensation only after truck men that deliver the granite pay them. They normally get paid P200 ($4.67). In spite of this, the difficulties they have, especially the children working in the mining site, are not apparent in their faces.

Carmen Bogate said that the money they receive from working in the mining site is not sufficient for their basic needs because they only receive a fraction of the total income. The money has to be divided to several individuals such as the landowner of the site who has the mining permit, the diggers, chippers and transporters.

“For example,” she said, “we were able to sell six cubic meters of big slabs of granite for P1,500 ($35.05), that is a total of P9,000 ($210.28). Around 50 percent of this amount will go to the landowners. The remaining 50 percent will be divided among the diggers, chippers and transporters.”

Miners said they have mining permits. They said that they are aware of the possible effects of what they are doing yet the unavailability of other sources of income compels them to continue mining.

Considering the geophysical features of the village that is mountainous and coastal, some of the miners said that they are afraid of the possible ill-effects of granite mining.

“We know that it may lead to landslides and soil erosion but we have no choice but to mine because, as of now, it is the only available livelihood that we have,” a miner said.

Although there are other ways to earn money such as planting, they said that the latter is not enough because it takes a long time before the produce can be obtained.

They said that if there is a sufficient alternative source of income, they would eventually leave the mining site to evade calamities that may arise.

“We also would like to protect the environment so we will stop mining but, as for now, we have no choice but to mine because it is the only available source of income for us,” one miner said. (Bulatlat.com)

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