NED, LAKE SEBU, South Cotabato (MindaNews / 15 Aug)—Convoys of lumbering huge 35-ton dump trucks is a daily sight along the 60-kilometer Lake Sebu-Maitum road since coal mining operations by subsidiaries of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) began a few years ago.
The mostly China-made trucks each carry about 36 cubic meters or around 40 tons of coal from mine sites in the mountain village of Ned in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, to be transported to a seaport in the coastal village of Kalaong in Maitum town, Sarangani province.
Ned is predominantly inhabited by Tboli and Dulangan Manobo indigenous peoples. Comprising over 70 sitios (communities), Ned is located along the boundaries of South Cotabato with Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces.
The village gained prominence in December 2017 when Tboli-Dulangan Manobo leader Datu Victor Danyan, his two sons Victor Jr. and Artemio, Pato Celardo, Samuel Angkoy, To Diamante, Bobot Lagase, and Mateng Bantel were killed.
The Tboli-Manobo Sdaf Claimants Organization (TAMASCO), which Danyan led, has asserted that their leader and the others were killed by government forces who accused them as rebels even though they were only defending their ancestral domain from the intrusion of fruit plantation and coal mining companies.
Seven years later, Ned’s landscape has dramatically changed as earthmoving equipment rolled into the village. SMC’s subsidiaries have announced they aim to extract 70 million metric tons of coal in Ned.
Whenever a huge truck approaches, habal-habal (the local term for motorcycle taxis) drivers take to the side of the road. “Lisud na basin maligsan, pisat gyud ta (Too risky to be ran over and be crushed),” remarked Lito Oyob.
Locals said there are hundreds of such trucks rented by SMC from prominent politicians, local leaders and businessmen from South Cotabato, General Santos City and Sarangani province.
The daily truck journey starts as early as four o’clock in the morning, when the trucks get their fill of coal. The trips stop at four in the afternoon.
It takes two to three hours for the coal-heavy trucks to reach the port in Maitum, where the coal is stockpiled and wait for boats to load them to be brought elsewhere. The travel, more than 30 kilometers away, takes that long due to the deteriorating road condition and the fact that they have to take utmost precaution with such a heavy load on zigzagging downhill runs. The concrete road that was built a few years back now displays gaping cracks and eroded portions.
A civil engineer who only gave his name as Ed said the Lake Sebu-Maitum Road, being an interior road artery, is not thick enough to withstand heavy loads like the coal-carrying trucks.
Earth movement and sinkholes
Before coal mining went full swing, experts at the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s (MGB) Regional Office No. XII warned the local government unit of the municipality of Lake Sebu that many areas of the 42,000-hectare barangay Ned is prone to subsidence, which the agency said is due to “due to weak soil materials beneath, steep slope, and it is assumed that there is a hollow portion beneath as indicated by observed sinkholes nearby.”
Initial coal-mining operations in Ned covered nine hectares located in sitios El Dulog, El Gapok, Pulosubong, Tawan Dagat, and Sigawit where government geologists and workers found sinkholes and identified landslide areas.
Rolly Aquino, chief of South Cotabato’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), had also reported then that sinkholes and erosion areas were discovered in in sitios El Dulog, Tuburan, Pulosubong, Kiantay, and Tawan Dagat.
The 2019 MGB report warned that “possible extraction of coal beneath the ground of an impermeable layer that hastens the downward movement of saturated to oversaturated soil leading to landslides should be dealt with accordingly.”
Such geological conditions prompted officials to revise and update Ned’s development plan, said the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. had sought DHSUD’s help to update the local development plan “due to the hazards present in the barangay (Ned), specifically their high susceptibility to subsidence which comprises about 60% of the land area of the barangay.”
With its subsidiaries—Daguma Agro Minerals Incorporated (DAMI) and Sultan Energy Philippine Corporation (SEPC)—San Miguel aims to extract coal in areas covering about 17,000 hectares in the provinces of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.
To this, the South Cotabato provincial government vowed “tight monitoring” of the mining activities in Ned.
Tamayo, in his previous media pronouncements, said all that local officials could do was to make sure that the mining operations were being “done legally and safely because the coal mining activities were approved by the national government.”
MindaNews visited the affected areas on Aug. 10 to take pictures. (Rommel G. Rebollido / MindaNews)
