No more large-scale mining in Benguet pushed

March 13, 2022 Provincial

ITOGON, Benguet March 01 – Mayor Victorio T. Palangdan vowed to push for the adoption of a no mining policy in the province to help in sustaining ongoing efforts by concerned government agencies and local governments to preserve and protect the environment and appropriately delineate the uses of the limited land area for the desired growth and development beneficial to the present and future generation of inhabitants.
Palangdan cited as a glaring example the current state of the municipality that served as host to the operation of various large-scale mining companies that resulted in the massive destruction of the environment and the displacement of indigenous peoples (IPs) from their ancestral domain which they had occupied since time immemorial.
He narrated that in the early 1980s, Itogon had been piece self-sufficient because of the rice produced by the farmers living in the town’s
barangays.
However, Mayor Palangdan disclosed that after more than 3 decades of the operation of mining companies, the rice production of the farmers dwindled aside from the fact that agriculture that served as one of the major sources of the livelihood of the people was also affected that compelled them to abandon rice farming and other forms of agriculture for a better source of income which is mining.
According to him, only the barangays of Tinongdan and Dalupirip remain to be rice producers but the rice production of the farmers is enough for the consumption of the people in the said areas.
The local chief executive pointed out that while mining was able to contribute to the development of various communities in Itogon, tuba, and Mankayan, the enormous damage that the said environmentally critical activity to the state of the environment in the areas was evident that resulted in the scarcity of water supply, massive deforestation, increase in the number of geohazard areas due to underground activities among others.
Palangdan underscored that the present generation of IPs could not afford to pass on to the upcoming generations a ravaged environment that is why it is high time for concerned government agencies and local governments to act by giving premium to productive activities that are environmentally sound such as Agri-tourism, eco-tourism among others that will help in bringing back the greenery of the province’s environment.
Itogon is one of the 5 first-class municipalities and one of the 3 first-class towns in the province that rely on mining as its source of the bulk of its income being used to enhance the delivery of basic services and implement high-impact development projects beneficial to the greater majority of the populace.
Palangdan asserted that Benguet had already enough of its share of destructions to the environment that is why efforts to enhance the ongoing efforts to preserve and protect the province’s state of the environment should be one of the primordial issues that must be given appropriate attention by the concerned government agencies and local governments so that the future generation will be able to enjoy a good environment that they could pass on to the upcoming generation of inhabitants.