By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES
BANGUED, Abra.— Two days before elections, 262 people were removed from the list of registered voters in the town of Licuan-Baay after the court approved the motion for exclusion filed by two of its mayoral candidates.
Election Officer Carmelita Bayquen said the Lagangilang Municipal Trial Court approved the motion of mayoral candidates Arnold Molina and Christopher Millare to exclude miners who registered as voters of the town as well as other old voters.
Marilyn Herrero, the third mayoral candidate, also filed for exclusion of several individuals but was denied.
Miners are “residents of other places” who “flocked” to have themselves registered six months before the elections, Bayquen said.
In the census conducted in 2007, Licuan-Baay had a population of 3,990. Registered voters in 2010 numbered 4,775 originally, but is now down to 4,513 with the miners’ exclusion.
The small-scale mining in Mt. Capcapo in Barangay Poblacion attracted miners from neighboring provinces of Abra, and encouraged residents and their spouses who have migrated to return, Bayquen said.
But as far as the legality of its operation is concerned, the permit for mining has not been approved, according to Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Ernesto Aton.
On April 21, 2009, Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin signed a cease-and-desist order “to all small-scale miners operating at Capcapo” to “avoid imminent danger to lives and properties as well as to prevent the destruction of the environment.”
The governor “instructed to stop right away all illegal mining activities” as “per endorsement and recommendation of the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) chaired by Regional Director Neoman De La Cruz” of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of DENR in the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The order is valid until such time that “appropriate mining permit from the Provincial Government” is secured.
Mining in Capcapo persists today.
The PMRB has not met and made any recommendations, Aton said.
Residents of Licuan-Baay have built bigger houses and bought vehicles since mining started in Capcapo, Bayquen observed. Gold from Mt. Capcapo is between 18 and 24 carats and sells between P1,000 and P1,200 per gram in Baay but can go as high as 1,800 pesos per gram in Baguio, she said.
Many have been supposedly murdered because of gold from Capcapo, but such incidents are not reported to the police.