Hell in Paradise
Mining operations in
Marinduque have long been stopped but the toxic wastes dumped by the
Marcopper Mining Corporation-Placer Dome Inc. from 1975 to 1991 into
Marinduque's Calancan Bay continue to poison the lives of Marinduque
residents.
BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat
Lumps on the hands and wounds in the
feet are what Wilson Manuba (left, left
photo) and father, acquire from
Marcopper heavy metal poisoning,
which eventually led to the amputation of the former's right leg.
Photos by Aubrey Makilan |
|
BOAC, Marinduque –
The Department of Health (DoH) earlier admitted it has no enough funds to
do a full blown health assessment in Marinduque, an island province 170
kms south of Manila. With the crisis the country has been going through,
the real number of affected individuals could not be identified. In an
interview with Bulatlat, Wilson Manuba, a victim of the Marcopper
heavy metal poisoning, even recalled that he paid for his medical
examinations, for the ambulance service and for its fuel when he was
brought to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in
Manila
for an operation in 2002.
In 1978 at the age of
seven, Wilson began fishing to help his father in Calancan Bay off the
village of San Isidro,
Sta. Cruz, Marinduque. One day, he injured his right foot by stepping
accidentally on a seashell. Wart-like lumps or inflammation began
appearing on his foot. He went through an operation seven years later but
the lumps kept coming back. The wounds became so severe that his right leg
had to be amputated in September 2002. But the lumps reappeared in other
parts of his body just after five months.
Even Wilson’s father
has lumps on his hands, too. He has them for over 30 years now, he says.
Father and son started to grow lumps on the hands after fish thorns
pricked their hands.
Doctors diagnosed
Wilson and his father as having high mercury toxicity in the blood. The
other children in the Manuba family also complain of skin-related
diseases, two of them suffer respiratory ailments.
Meanwhile, the
tragedy that struck the family of Felicidad Quindoza of Barangay Ipil is
just as difficult to heal. On March 24, 1996, toxic mine tailings from the
Marcopper mines were disgorged into the Makulapnit and Boac Rivers that ended up in Calancan
Bay and other waterways.
Days after the
incident, Felicidad’s son Marvic, then 11, complained of stomach pain
after eating fish caught from the bay. Marvic became bed-ridden, lost his
appetite and suffered bouts of high fever. Marvic died two years later;
his death certificate stating heavy metal poisoning as cause. Complaining
of respiratory problems, brother Marvin was also brought to the Lung Center in Quezon City. Doctors
detected heavy metal elements in his blood.
Although she wants to
leave the village, Felicidad told Bulatlat they do not have enough
money to start a new life in another place. Husband Rogelio drives a
jeepney and brings home only P100 a day.
|
NINE YEARS AFTER: The Mogpog River, still contaminated nine years
after the spill
Photo by
Aubrey
SC Makilan |
Today, both the
Quindoza and Manuba families still fish in Calancan for food.
A hell in paradise
Within the Calancan
Bay lies a 7-km long airstrip-like land formed from Marcopper's waste. The
company refers to it as "causeway." The wisecracking residents bitterly
kid each other that the island was the cause of their suffering. They say
the company has claimed it as their private property, even putting up a
checkpoint manned by its blue guards.
"It may look like 'Boracay'
from a far but it is really a hell in paradise," said Ricky Rodas
referring to the causeway. Rodas is the chair of Calancan Bay Fisherfolk
Federation and a councilor of Barangay (village) Butilao in Sta.Cruz. He
and his family live on top of a hill that overlooks the causeway.
In 1975, the Marcos
government granted Marcopper a blanket permit to operate and allowed it to
dump mine tailings at the Calancan
Bay. Most environmental regulations were suspended as far as Marcopper's
operations were concerned. Environmental groups say this is because at
that time Marcos, through his cronies, owned 49 percent of the
corporation.
When it rose to power
in 1986, the Aquino administration banned the disposal of mine tailings at
the Calancan Bay. But then, on May 13, 1988, President Corazon Aquino
through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) turned
full circle by allowing Marcopper to operate for 10 years and use the
Tapian pit as its mine tailings dam.
When finally the
government's Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) confirmed that the
fish-rich bay had become contaminated in 1991, it was too late to save it.
The Calancan Bay, on which more than 2,000 fisherfolk depend for
livelihood, had already accumulated tons of wastes, burying 80 sq. ms. of
coral reefs. According to the Marinduque Council for Environment Concerns
(MACEC), the bay is practically dead with 50 hectares of its fishing
ground covered by toxic tailings.
Increasing number
of casualties
The United States
Geological Survey has earlier verified that lead is seeping out of the
millions of tons of tailings Marcopper dumped into Calancan Bay between
1975-1991.
The DoH finding in
1996 and 1997 were also alarming. Various amounts of toxic chemicals were
found in 75 children, 21 of whom have been detoxified. The rural health
office’s findings also include cases of heart failure and practically all
forms of cancer.
No
assurance in detoxification
Roden Reynoso, 4, and
Marvic were among the 22 patients treated in 1999 at the PGH. Most of the
patients treated earlier at the hospital may already have gone into a
relapse since they are now back in the fishing villages near Calancan Bay,
said Macec’s Beth Manggol.
Dr. Lyn Panganiban of the University of the Philippines-PGH concurred with
the findings.
Meanwhile, at least
40 people have died bearing symptoms believed by their families to have
been caused by the toxic wastes of Marcopper. But according to the NGO
Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC),
the number could be higher because of many unreported deaths in Marinduque.
The latest was Ambeth
Relloque. He was to be brought by ambulance to the PGH in Manila last
October upon the recommendation of Dr. Teodolfo Rejano, municipal health
officer of Sta. Cruz, Marinduque because of suspected heavy metal
poisoning. But he never reached the hospital.
Before Ambeth died on
Oct. 18, he bore symptoms similar to those suffered by other children who
died from poisoning caused by heavy metals which came from drinking water
and eating seafoods from the bay.
Aside from Ambeth,
his father Tido has also already grown very thin. He attributes his
illness to taking in the poisons coming from Calancan. The Relloques live
four kilometers from the bay and rely on farming and fishing for food.
Jobeth Molato of the
Marinduqueños for the Interest of the Nation and the Environment (MINE)
fears that the rest of Relloques, as well as the 700 other fishing
families in the vicinity of Calancan, would meet the same fate as Ambeth
and Tido. Bulatlat
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