Cantilan residents hold 30th day Vigil against Mining

By Carl Cesar C. Rebuta

http://themindanaocurrent.blogspot.com/2009/12/campaign-against-mining.html

Residents of Cantilan, Surigao del Sur closed their 30th vigil against mining with a Mass officiated by Father Pit Ubalde in the makeshift tent installed by the anti-mining multi-sectoral group in Triangle (Junction). The multi-sectoral group is headed by the lady Mayor of Cantilan Tomasa Guardo and the CanCarMadCarLan Baywatch Foundation.
Since November 16, the community launched a local checkpoint against Marcventures Mining Development Corporation (MMDC) to prevent the company from transporting mineral ores to the nearby wharf.
Carrascal, Surigao del Sur, a town near Cantilan has 2 large-scale mining operations controlled by the Pimentels, the Political clan of Surigao del Sur. “Carrascal mining operations is a concrete evidence of how it ruins the lives and livelihood of the local people. Our rich coastal sanctuaries are already silted, Our water and irrigations are murky. They are killing people.”- Sister Lydia Lascano, ICM, Coordinator of SAC-Tandag narrated inside the makeshift tent.
Cantilan is the food basket of Surigao del Sur. “We have vast tract of rice fields and abundant marine resources. These are our gold in Cantilan not the ore beneath our rich agricultural lands,” Mayor Tomasa Guardo, a strong staunch against mining in her town, who also issued a municipal resolution not to allow Marcventures, an LGU power of asserting their right to say “No” under the local government code of 1991.
Tinty Irriberi, Acting President of Baywatch Foundation described that the vigil was a 24/7 commitment of the local people, 24 hours in 7 days and it will go on. “We will be here until the mining permit of MMDC is canceled. We have already filed a cancellation of MMDC’s MPSA permit in the office of the Secretary of DENR last June 24, 2009 but until today we have not received any letter from the said office”