Marcopper Death Toll Reaches 3
Community, environmental groups press for justice
The mining operations have long been
stopped but the toxic wastes dumped by Marcopper and Placer Dome from 1975
to 1991 into Marinduque's Calancan Bay, a major water and food source in
the area, has claimed yet another life.
BY BULATLAT
Ambeth Relloque, 18,
was to be brought by ambulance to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in
Manila this month upon the recommendation of Dr. Teodolfo Rejano,
Municipal Health Officer of Sta. Cruz, Marinduque (an island province
170 kms. south of Manila) because of suspected heavy metal poisoning. He never
reached the hospital.
On Oct. 18, Relloque died in his hometown. His death is a tragic addition to the
growing number of teenagers and children dying in the villages near
Calancan Bay in Marinduque. Villagers reported that Relloque, before he
died, had the symptoms similar to those suffered by other children who had
died from poisoning caused by lead and other heavy metals from drinking
water and eating fish and other seafood from the waters of Calancan.
"Wala naman silang
ibang makakain doon kundi ang mga lamang dagat na kontaminado ng mine
tailings sa Calancan," (They didn't have anything to eat there except the
mine tailings-contaminated seafoods found in Calancan), said Jobeth Molato
of the Marinduqueños for the Interest of the Nation and the Environment
(MINE).
A few weeks before Relloque
died, Molato said the latter simply stopped eating, adding that Relloque's
body may not have been able to further tolerate the poisons it was
receiving.
The bay is where
Marcopper and Placer Dome dumped close to 50 million tons of mine waste
from 1975 to 1991.
In 1993, a Marcopper
dam stopping mine waste at Mogpog
River broke. This caused a flood that inundated Marinduque’s downstream
villages.
The 1993 tragedy
would be surpassed on March 24, 1996, when three to four cubic meters of
mine tailings spilled from a drainage tunnel into the rivers of Boac and
Makulapnit. All life forms in the rivers were destroyed as a result, and
the communities in the vicinity were displaced.
Molato fears for the
safety and health of the other members of the Relloque household, as well
as some 700 other fishing families within the vicinity of Calancan. "Katulad
ni Ambeth, masyado nang payat si Tatay Tido (the victim's father) mula sa
pagkain ng lason na nanggagaling sa Calancan," (Like Ambeth, his father
Tido has also already grown too emaciated from eating the poisons coming
from Calancan), he added.
The Relloque household, Molato pointed out, is
located just four kilometers from the shores of Calancan, and relies on
farming and fishing for its food needs.
Relloque's death
brings to three the number of known fatalities believed to have died from
the prolonged effects of heavy metals poisoning in Sta. Cruz. Last year,
Roden Reynoso, 4, and Marvic Quindoza, 13, died from lead poisoning. But
the number could be higher due to a number of unreported deaths in
Marinduque, the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC) stated.
The two were among 22
patients treated in 1999 at the PGH. Most of the patients treated earlier
at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) may already have gone into a
relapse since most of them are now back in the fishing villages near
Calancan Bay, according to CEC executive director Frances Quimpo.
Quimpo lamented that
almost three decades after, Placer Dome and Marcopper have not even owned
up to their responsibility.
Quimpo said
Relloque's death is a wake-up call that should prod the government to
immediately implement a comprehensive rehabilitation of the environment
and the people in Marinduque. She said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
should drop the idea of reopening mining in Marinduque since this is not
what the people need.
The United States
Geological Survey (USGS) completed a comprehensive environmental and
health study in Marinduque on July 25. Yet three months have passed and
the government still has to draw up a plan to rehabilitate Marinduque.
The USGS study was
commissioned through a P20 million fund released from the Office of the
President. Some sectors, however, including Dr. Lyn Panganiban of the UP
PGH Poisons Control and Information Services, which administered the
treatment of Marinduque victims, believe that the money could have been
better spent for the treatment of the contamination victims in Marinduque.
"What the people need
is not a reopening of mining in Marinduque, which President Arroyo naively
believes, but environmental justice," Quimpo said.
"The first step towards
environmental justice is the immediate implementation of a no non-sense
clean-up and rehabilitation of the environment and justice for the people
of Marinduque. This should be done alongside a strong prosecution of
Placer Dome and Marcopper officials from the government to account for
their criminal recklessness and irresponsibility in Marinduque," she also
said.
"And it should be now
before everyone else dies in Marinduque," Quimpo added. Bulatlat
Related articles
BACK TO TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2004 Bulatlat
■ Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified. |
