'Stop sale of 729-hectare Diwalwal land'

DAVAO CITY , Philippines  – More than 40,000 small-scale miners are insisting that the government should not sell a 729-hectare area considered to have the richest gold deposits on Mt. Diwalwal for $18 billion.

The miners have been joined by lumad groups, which are now invoking their claim for ancestral domain over the contested area.

The Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC) has reportedly moved the submission and opening of bids from June 7 to July 30 after the small-scale miners threatened to create trouble should the bidding push through.

“But we do not only want the bidding to be postponed, we also want the government to totally stop the sale of the 729-hectare area,” said Mt. Diwalwal barangay captain Franco Tito.

Tito said the small-scale miners should be the ones who should benefit from the gold production on Mt. Diwalwal and not the foreigners who are interested in exploring the 729-hectare area.

The miners called on president-apparent Sen. Benigno Aquino III to immediately intervene to prevent further chaos at the gold-rush site.

“As our incoming president, we sincerely ask your intervention on this matter and prevent the upheaval of the small-scale miners toward the government that you will inherit soon,” the Mt. Diwalwal barangay council said in a letter to Aquino.

In a resolution late last month, the barangay officials insisted that the bidding is supposedly another effort of the outgoing administration of President Arroyo to make money out of Mt. Diwalwal.

“That is our belief that the undertaking is another unscrupulous deal of this outgoing administration,” the resolution stated.

At least nine mining firms have expressed interest in exploring and developing the 729-hectare area, which is reportedly the fourth parcel that the PMDC has decided to bid out.

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