Ten police officers received citations last week from the Virac Water District for their apprehension of four men earlier reported to be panning for gold in the Cauayan river watershed.
In a brief ceremony at the Virac police station last Oc. 17, 2022, VIWAD General Manager Gabriel Tejerero, board chairman Nelia Tadoy and Director Ronald Oscar Lim handed the certificates of commendation to PMaj. Robert Kevin Caparroso as overall supervisor, PCapt. Francis Tabo I as supervisor in charge of case build-up, PCMS Louie Garcia, PSSg. Rochele Torres, PCpl. Dyrel Tiburcio, PCpl. Bobby Tribiana, PCpl. Roldan Abundo, PCpl. Geoffrey Arcilla, Pat. Francis Lopez and Pat. Noel Mendez.
Two other units were involved in the Sept. 26 operation – the Catanduanes 1st Police Mobile Force Company and the Tubaon detachment of the Philippine Army’s 83rd Infantry Division – as members of the team organized by the chief of police against illegal small-scale mining in the capital town.
The water district commended the team members for their quick response to a distress call resulting in the apprehension in flagrante delicto of four male suspects for illegally conducting small scale mining activity at the water source of the VIWAD, thereby preventing chemical contamination of the town’s water supply.
“This laudable accomplishment is a manifestation of your professionalism, devotion and commitment to sworn duty, worthy of emulation by others,” the VIWAD officials stated.
The official police report said that team led by PCpl. Roldan Abundo arrested Randy Barbiran, 36, his brother Rodel Barbiran, 38, Dan Lee Arcilla, 18, and Domingo Arcilla, 42, all of whom are from Tubaon except for Rodel, at 2:44 PM of Sept. 26.
Confiscated from the suspects were three shovels, four steel bars used in digging, a wooden wining pan, and two small bottles containing gold flakes.
According to Calatagan Tibang barangay captain Epifanio Linan, who went with the team up the mountain to the Cauayan watershed, the site where the suspects were panning for gold was about 1.5 kilometers upstream of the intake tank in a thickly forested area within the territorial jurisdiction of barangay Hicming.
It is claimed that VIWAD personnel assigned at the intake had been noticing the four men passing by the area frequently in previous months but thought they were just abaca strippers.
When it was confirmed that the suspects were engaged in illegal small-scale mining, they told GM Tejerero who immediately asked the police to investigate and confirm the report.
Two squads of law enforcers carrying long firearms climbed up to the area and came upon the four men using steel bars to dig along the banks, even propping large boulders with pieces of wood to get at the rocky sediment beneath.
The suspects allegedly diverted water from the pools (tibo-tibo) so it would pass by the banks where they were panning for gold, with the activity producing silt that was carried downstream.
They told the arresting team that they thought gold panning in the watershed area was not illegal and insisted that they did not use mercury in their operation.
Linan said that there had been reports in the past of gold panning in other sites, including upstream of Minaridong river in Danicop, the banks of which are riddled with holes caused by the activity.
Meanwhile, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office has yet to reply to the Tribune query on reports of illegal gold mining in barangay Dugui Too.
The Provincial ENR Office in San Isidro Village, Virac refused to comment on the matter and referred the Tribune to the MGB regional office headed by Director Guillermo Molina.
Unconfirmed reports that about 30 individuals are now encamped in a mountainside in Dugui Too that iss off-limits to outsiders.
The illegal gold miners, including a few from Camarines Norte. have been hired by an ally of a former public official of Virac for about P250 per day, with the gold bought by the operator at P1,300 per gram.
The reports prompted barangay chairman Demcint Beo to write a letter to the PENRO but the latter allegedly refused to receive the complaint.
The very next day, a police team accompanied by a DENR forester raided Beo’s house where alleged undocumented lumber was seized.
Beo claimed that the lumber actually consisted of leftover construction forms used in the construction of the barangay hall, with most of the seized wood products left in the care of the barangay by the DENR forester when it was seized sometime ago.
The village chief still has the copy of the inventory of the seized lumber signed by the forester.