On a misty morning in early February, farmers lined the highway with laminated photos of dried rice paddies and mutated irrigation canals.
Their palms clasped in prayer, voices shaky yet defiant, they formed a human barricade to stop the inch-by-inch advance of a massive cutter suction dredger, a six-story machine meant to upend the mineral-rich beaches of McArthur for black sand extraction.
“This machine is a sentence for our rice fields,” said Jesus Cabias Jr., spokesperson for peasant farmers from barangays Maya, Pongon, Liwayway, and Romualdez.
“Our fear is that our rice fields will be erased from the map.”
The stakes in this agricultural town are visceral. McArthur, traditionally a rice-producing municipality in Leyte province, has watched its lifeblood soil, its tangible future, fray under the rumble of dredgers and flash announcements. Residents and farmers fear not only economic ruin, but environmental collapse.
A Legal War, a Land Torn Apart
The mining at the heart of this dispute is black sand, a heavy mineral deposit used in concrete, steel, jewelry and even cosmetic manufacturing.
The right to extract these sands in McArthur dates back to mining claims and Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) granted to Strong Built Mining Development Corp. and operated locally under McArthur Iron Sand Project Corp. (MIPC).
According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the company holds a valid MPSA covering over 2,200 hectares in McArthur and nearby towns Abuyog and Javier.
But while the paperwork may be in order, compliance remains a bitter flashpoint.
“The work program that includes environmental safeguards and rehabilitation plans has not yet been approved,” MGB Eastern Visayas information officer Celeste Faith de la Cruz stated recently.
“Without that, they cannot resume operations.”
Yet the dredger is moving inch by inch bringing tensions with it.
Farmers claim they were blocked from accessing their own land without notice. Some report irrigation canals destroyed and holes left unfilled by previous mining operations and depressions are now collecting rainwater and compounding flood risks.
Others allege instances of intimidation and harassment around access roads.
Local Government: Neutral or Complicit?
McArthur Councilor Dominic Babante publicly stated that the mayor has not issued a business permit for the mining operation, noting that regulatory authority lies at the national level.
“Our local government unit continues to listen to the voices of our people,” he wrote on social media.
In another interview, town mayor Rudin Babante clarified that the company was able to secure all necessary permits prior to operations with a contract that is expected to last until 2032.
He further stated that if the farmers and landowners were really against the mining operations, they should not have sold their land to the company which confirmed the earlier allegations that many of the complaining residents have already entered an agreement with MIPC.
Furthermore, a local barangay chairman reportedly assured residents that mined land would be rehabilitated, but many farmers now say those promises were broken.
Promises of Wealth, Reality of Loss
Defenders of the mining operation point to jobs and economic activity. In earlier years, the company reported employing around 300 locals, with daily wages above what many could earn from rice farming.
Yet, for every day of employment counted, there is a field that may never produce rice again. In a community where seasonal harvests dictate the heartbeat of life, losing arable land is losing a future.
Environmental advocacy groups amplify this existential threat. A recent op-ed by the University of the Philippines–Tacloban Student Council declared, “There is no such thing as responsible mining,” lamenting that mined out fields are left bare — a harbinger of collapsing local ecosystems.
Farmers’ Final Appeal
After a candlelight vigil and signed petition delivered to Malacañang Palace, farmers have gone as far as requesting an executive order from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to halt mining operations in their territory, warning of hunger and irreversible environmental damage if the industry is allowed to proceed unchecked.
As the sun sets over McArthur’s rice paddies, fields now dotted with gaping pits and murky pools, the question lingers: at what point does progress demand we abandon the very people it claims to help?
For the farmers still praying on the highway, black sand is no longer just a mineral commodity. It is the last line in a fight for survival and a quiet indictment of a development paradigm that places profit over people.
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