This question was in the minds of many people in Catanduanes since July 28, 2026 when the body of an alleged small-scale gold miner buried alive by a landslide was brought to barangay Obi in Caramoran town.
According to one of the two survivors, they were digging a hole along a mountainside already soaked from the previous day’s rains when the wall of soil collapsed on them.
One of them – a 16-year-old boy – escaped unharmed but his father was buried up to his neck while the latter’s son-in-law was nowhere to be seen in the pile of earth.
The boy managed to extricate his injured father, who told him to go back to Obi and request assistance from the barangay.
The accounts of the July 27 incident did not say how long it took the courageous lad to negotiate the distance, normally taken in three to four hours during the day, in complete darkness.
But he did reach Obi at 2 AM the next day where barangay captain Leoncio Zuniega Jr. mustered his tanods for a rescue and recovery mission, bringing the boy’s father and then the body of the unfortunate abaca stripper by 4:30 PM.
The controversy began when the Catanduanes police, led by no less than the provincial director himself, arrived to investigate the incident.
One report said the man-made accident occurred within Caramoran town while Camp Camacho said it was in sitio Macacaw near barangay San Isidro in San Andres.
The discrepancy in the reports as to the location prompted various comments on social media, with one former DSWD enumerator familiar with the area wondering why, if the incident was in San Isidro, the boy sought help from Obi when Mayngaway is nearer.
Indeed, a check of Google Earth as well as a topographic website shows that San Isidro is roughly 12 kilometers from Obi while San Isidro itself is just three kilometers from Mayngaway población.
And there is the common knowledge that there is only one sitio in San Isidro and that is Sitio Calumagon.
This must have spurred San Andres Municipal Police Station chief of police PMaj. Francis I. Tabo I to dispute the report of the Catanduanes Police Provincial Office that there was illegal mining in the town.
Three days after Michael Jay San Juan’s body was brought to Obi, the incident claimed (almost, as it turned out) another victim.
On July 30, PCol. Virgilio R. Buena informed San Andres Mayor Aly T. Romano that PMaj. Tabo was being relieved of his command “in line with the Catanduanes police’s continuing commitment to uphold the rule of law, strengthen public trust, and ensure effective law enforcement.”
The police director said the recent incident “underscored the need for stronger leadership, enhanced operational supervision, and a renewed commitment to the strict enforcement of environmental laws and other applicable statutes,” implying that the police chief was weak in the enforcement of environmental laws especially on illegal mining.
To his credit, the local chief executive stood by his police chief and, despite being asked by the Police Regional Office 5 to name his replacement, insisted that Tabo remain at his post.
If the objective of the stalled relief order was to preserve the integrity of police operations, reinforce public confidence in the Catanduanes police and demonstrate its commitment to eradicate all forms of illegal mining on the Happy Island, then PD Buena should have removed, along with Tabo, the chiefs of police in Virac and Viga where separate arrests of illegal gold mining were reported a week before.
The disagreements on where exactly is Sitio Macacaw have stirred up past speculations that someone powerful enough is financing down-and-out abaca strippers to dig along river banks and pan for gold flakes.
A survivor’s claim that they can get as much as a gram of gold every 10 days and sell it for P6,000 to a buyer in Virac is more than enough motivation for other abaca farmers, sidelined by the heavy damage wrought by two supertyphoons on abaca plantations, to join in the illegal mining spree.
The controversy prompted Provincial Board Member Ronald T. Idanan of Caramoran to file twin resolutions asking local officials to conduct validation and profiling of those engaged in or dependent on small-scale mining and for concerned government agencies to implement a comprehensive livelihood program for these individuals and families.
In a province that has prided itself as a mining-free area, PBM Idanan is correct in pointing out that the solution to the problem is not only the arrest and filing of charges against illegal miners but providing proper and sustainable alternative livelihood to poor Catandunganons forced to dig for gold.