Mining is not economic development, says Hagedorn

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Oct 2 (PNA) -- In April 1956, physicians at the Chisso Corporation's hospital in Minamata, Japan had difficulty understanding what had caused the illness of a five-year-old girl who couldn't walk, talk and would constantly suffer convulsions.

A couple of days later, the girl's younger sister also began to show the same signs and was hospitalized.

The parents of the little girls told doctors that a neighbor's daughter had also gone through the same symptoms.

From there, eight other children were hospitalized due to an illness that proved complicated for experts in the medical field in Japan to understand.

On May 1, the hospital reported to the public health office the discovery of an unknown disorder of the central nervous system, which is now called the "Minamata disease."

Sometimes referred to as Chisso-Minamata disease - Chisso being the corporation that first opened a chemical factory in Minamata in 1908 that produced acetaldehyde which used mercury sulfate - Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning.

Its symptoms include ataxia, numbness of the hands and feet, muscle weakness, damaged hearing and slurred speech; and in worst cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death within weeks of the onset of symptoms.

The children of Minamata were the most vulnerable to the disease that researchers discovered was due to the dumping of methyl mercury in the industrial waste water from the Chisso Corporation chemical factory to Minamata Bay and Shiranui Sea that accumulated in shellfish and fish. When consumed by people, the result is mercury poisoning.

This menacing disease that affected more than 2,000 people in Japan is one of the reasons Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn is fighting hard against mining from overtaking Puerto Princesa.

"We almost had residents in Puerto Princesa suffering from Minamata disease due to the release of mercury mine tailings to the sea," Hagedorn stated, referring to the former operation of the Palawan Quicksilver Mines, Inc. (PQMI) in Barangay Santa Lourdes that disposed mine tailings loaded with powdery residues of mercury in Honda Bay.

The PQMI produced about 2,900 tons of mercury because of cinnabar ore mining from 1953 to early in 1976. In 1995, high mercury content was detected in many residents near its former mine site, and records showed that 21 people were treated for mercury poisoning.

When mercury calcines (powdery residue) are transferred to water, they affect shells and marine fishes that are consumed by humans, causing the element to poison them. Some of the symptoms that were recorded from the residents of Santa Lourdes were similar to those in Minamata.

"There's no way I will allow mining in this city because it is destructive not only to the environment but to the health of the people. Look at what happened to PQMI," he said.

It is staggering that nearly every square inch of Puerto Princesa, now a highly-urbanized city, is ready to be gobbled up by mining, Hagedorn said.

He claimed that looking at the number of mining applications lodged in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and its local counterpart, it would appear that a resident can have a mining site as a next-door neighbor.

"These predatory mining companies are even proposing to mine inside the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, which is a World Heritage Site. Where is mercy in that, that even what God wonderfully created they want to destroy? I wouldn't allow that for as long as I am the mayor of this city," he stressed.

Hagedorn said his campaign for Puerto Princesa, a "City in a Forest," is for a "long term sustainable economic and social development," which wouldn't be achieved if investments that would extract non-renewable resources are allowed to operate.