Diwalwal another midnight deal?

MANILA, Philippines - Trouble looms over the gold mines at Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo, Compostela Valley after more than 40,000 small-scale miners opposed the reported plan of the Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC) to set the bidding next week for rights to a disputed mining site in the area.

The miners have called on incoming president Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to intervene and prevent renewed chaos at Mt. Diwalwal by stopping the PMDC from selling the 729-hectare mining site that is considered to contain the richest gold deposit in the area with estimated gold reserves of over $18 billion.

“As our incoming president, we sincerely ask your (Aquino) intervention on this matter and prevent the upheaval of the small-scale miners,” the Sanguniang Barangay of Mt. Diwata said in a letter to Aquino.

Barangay chairman Franco Tito said the bidding of the mining site is “another unscrupulous deal of this outgoing administration” of

President Arroyo to make money out of Mt. Diwalwal.

Tito said the miners have decided to launch a massive protest action that could include blockade of the road and bridge along the Davao-Agusan Highway just to make sure that their concerns are heard.

He said Aquino should act fast and address the complaints to stop the miners from opposing the bidding of the mining site.

At least nine big mining companies have expressed interest in exploring and developing the Mt. Diwalwal mining area.

The interested firms include the Paraiso Consolidated Mining Corp. (Pacomingco), construction firm FF Cruz & Co., Philex Mining Corp., Blackstone Mineral Resources, Inc., Udema Holdings, China NonFerrous Metals Mining (Phil.) Group Co., Angping-led Geograce Resources Philippines Inc., Balatoc Gold Resources Corp. and Mt. Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp.

The submission and opening of bids is scheduled on June 7, which the small-scale miners want stopped.

The PMDC has set a minimum bid price of P300 million and under the contract, the state will retain a five-percent royalty on the gross profit from the mine.

Tito and other small-scale miners insisted that the bidding of the area could not proceed because it is highly detrimental to the subsistence miners since there has been no clear-cut alternative formulated by government for the thousands of miners.

He said that as a requirement, bidders should be in possession of an endorsement of the local government unit for the project but no one among the prospective bidders has ever been able to get an endorsement from the local authorities as proof of their acceptability to the community.

The small-scale miners likewise said that the planned bidding on June 7 would be tantamount to giving preferential treatment to large-scale mining companies over Filipino citizens like the small-scale miners.