Nearly three decades after a mine spill disaster that occurred in a mining site in Marinduque, the local court has ruled in favor of at least 30 plaintiffs against Marcopper Mining Corporation.
In a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Judge Emmanuel Recalde of the Marinduque Regional Trial Court Branch 38 granted Php200,000 in temperate damages, and Php 100,000 in moral damages to each of the plaintiffs in the case filed in 2001.
Php1 million in exemplary damages was also awarded to all plaintiffs.
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) Executive Director Atty. Efenita Taqueban said in a report by London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Center that the Marcopper disaster is a warning that the country should heed with the ongoing and planned large-scale projects. LRC served as the plaintiffs’ legal counsel.
Taqueban added that the Alternative Minerals Management Bill authored by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Sen. Cynthia Villar is urgently needed to “safeguard the environment from mining and prevent disasters like this.”
In December 1993, parts of Marcopper’s Maguila-guila tailings collapsed, contaminating the Mogpog river with toxic waste. The silted water submerged and destroyed properties near the mining site, killing off the sources of livelihood and exposing the locals to health risks.
Marcopper encountered a more damaging incident in 1996 after one of its old open-pit mines ruptured, spilling millions of tons of mine waste, causing flash floods that buried villages. The spill caused 20,000 people to evacuate and killed off the Boac River, one of the villages’ major sources of livelihood.
(Photo from Philippine News Agency)
