The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday reported the apprehension of 18 illegal miners that include five Chinese nationals in Misamis Oriental last Saturday.
The DENR said several heavy equipment causing extensive damage on roughly 7.6 hectares of land along the Iponan river in Opol, Misamis Oriental were seized from the miners.
The agency said Northern Mindanao regional executive director Henry Adornado, DENR undersecretary for field operations in Mindanao Joselin Marcus Fragada, as well as the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the North Eastern Mindanao regional office of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and special forces units of the Philippine Army 4th Infantry Division conducted the raid.
According to Adornado, the miners neither have a mining permit nor a proper company as operator and that an ongoing investigation to find out the financier is underway.
Adornado said reports of their illegal activities were first received by a field team subsequently confirmed through DENR satellite imagery at the DENR Central Office.
The miners were brought to the detention facility of the NBI North Eastern Mindanao regional office in Cagayan de Oro City and facing charges for violation of several environmental laws, including the Philippine Mining Act, the Philippine Clean Water Act and the Forestry Code of the Philippines.
DENR said satellite images allowed the different government agencies to monitor and observe mining sites, confirm and track their activities.
“I hope that the recently conducted joint operation and the succeeding monitoring and rehabilitation efforts will bring about positive changes and bring to life again the Iponan river. I am calling on concerned government agencies, other stakeholders and the communities along the Iponan river and elsewhere in the country to take consistent active measures to combat illegal mining operations in their area,” said Environment Secretary Antonia Loyzaga, in a statement.
Early this year, the DENR partnered with the Philippine Space Agency to develop and generate maps, systems and tools that monitor forest areas using satellite remote sensing, artificial intelligence and geographic information systems.
