The Real Disaster in Albay

The recent eruption of Mayon may be a disaster. It can be argued, however, that such event was not that disastrous, as the eruption ended soon. Mayon's eruption caused inconvenience for two weeks (and, yes, crop damage in some westside villages; four died in evacuation centers due to stress and poor sanitation and they could not have been worse had they remained in ther homes). The disaster in Rapu-Rapu and surrounding sea, however, is on its 5th year. Daily some 10,000 island residents are bearing the full brunt of the environmental damage and economic injustice. Some 14,000 fishermen around Albay Gulf have seen their fish catch decline by as much as 93% - all that since 2005 and it's ongoing.

Three important sets of evidences and testimonies validate this disaster:

1. The pictures of contaminated creeks – brown, yellow, orange and red in color – as shown in the side bar of this webpage - are evidences of this disaster. Lafayette has not shown its own shots of the creeks to prove the effectiveness of its mitigation measures. All that the company shows are drawings of their devices and photographs of structures inside the minesite in early phases of construction and which evidently were cleaned up before the pictures were taken.

2. The interviews with island residents complaining about the ongoing hunger and poverty in the island despite the huge income of LPI as reported in the press releases of MGB.

3. The decline in fish catch by as much as 93% since 2005, the same year when LPI started full operation.

Lafayette may contrive every means they can think of – from revising their website content, to producing Powerpoint presentations, to claiming ISO certification – but all those will never counteract the three evidences and testimonies listed above. Lafayette executives have ignored our challenge for them to bathe in the creeks if they want to prove that they are not polluting the water channels. Instead, Ms. Calleja cavalierly responds: Visit the minesite and see for yourself. In response, we have told her: we have been there and done that! What matters now is the proof of the pudding which is in the eating. Whatever assurances they may state about the excellent control measures they have devised, the polluted creeks, hunger and poverty, and severe fish catch decline which commenced in 2005 will refute their claims.