Semirara residents forced to withdraw petition
Residents of Semirara Island in Antique are allegedly being pressured to nullify their petition against alleged pollution coming from mining operations on the island.
Roland Lavega, barangay captain of Alegria, said in a telephone interview on Monday that residents of his barangay fear for their safety after several barangay tanod (village watchmen) of the neighboring Barangay Semirara went to their houses “pressuring” them to sign a document signifying that they were unaware of the contents of the petition.
The petition addressed to Environment Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza and signed by around 100 residents of Alegria, alleged that coastal resources including mangroves have died or have been contaminated by wastes coming from the coal washing plant of the Semirara Mining Company (SMC).
The residents had alleged in their petition that silt has covered their coastline and mangroves as waste coming from the company's coal washing plant goes directly to the sea because the siltation pond has not been operational for a long time.
SMC has denied the allegations and has instead blamed typhoon “Frank” last year and previous storms for the siltation and the death of mangroves along the Suja Creek in Barangay Semirara, one of the three villages of the island.
The company, which has been operating one of the biggest coal mines in Asia on the 5,500-hectare island, also denied that the company's siltation pond has been non-functional.
Semirara is one of the nine islands comprising Caluya town in Antique at the northern end of Panay Island.
Alegria barangay councilor Cezar de la Torre said in separate telephone interview that since March 11, signatories of the petition are being made to sign a document stating that they were unaware that the petition they signed referred to the alleged siltation coming from the mining operations.
“The document would show that the issue was never discussed by the signatories,” said Dela Torre.
SMC administrative manager Juniper Barroquillo said the company had nothing to do with the move to withdraw the signatories from the petition.
He said it was initiated by Barangay Semirara officials because they learned that several of those who signed did so because they thought the petition concerned a boundary dispute between Barangays Alegria and Semirara.
Dela Torre said several of the petition's signatories signed the document being made to sign by the village watchmen of Barangay Semirara because they were afraid that their relatives working in the company would be pressured or laid off.
The barangay council of Semirara earlier passed a resolution refuting the allegations of residents of Alegria. While it acknowledged that nearly 3 hectares of mangroves were damaged, the council backed the claims of SMC that the siltation was caused by previous typhoons.
The Multi-Partite Monitoring Team (MMT), headed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is set to conduct an investigation on April 1-3 to investigate the allegations.