Social issue
“It’s a social issue,” Jasareno noted.
The settlers in Pantukan are mostly subsistence miners, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.
According to Jasareno, a miner could earn between P2,000 and P2,500 per gram of gold. One miner could find as much as 10 grams of gold in a day’s work, he said.
“The area continues to act as a magnet to as many as 200,000 individuals during a gold rush,” Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said.
Jasareno said the gold mines in Pantukan were illegal and did not have the permits from the local and national governments.
After a side of the mountain collapsed last year, the provincial government issued an ordinance banning small-scale mining and paving the way for Minahang Bayan, a cooperative-run operation. The local government gave the miners a year to leave or form into a Minahang Bayan.
x x x."
