Sperm whale dies in Rapu-Rapu

This time the “mine sweepers” of Lafayette could not hide the body of evidence. It is too large for their nets – 12 meters long and 20 tons heavy!

On July 19, 2010, we received a report that a dead whale was floating off the shores of Barangay Carogcog, Rapu-Rapu, Albay. Verification revealed that the casualty is a sperm whale. It was already decomposing, its black skin mostly peeled off revealing a white carcass.

We recall that on January 25, 2006, a smaller sperm whale, some 2 meters long, was also found dead in almost the same spot. Apologists of Lafayette (we still refer to it as such despite the change in name to Korea Malaysia Philippines Resources, Inc.) attributed its death to hacking by the island residents. Queerly, however, it was not consumed by the “hackers.” Laboratory tests by the Philippine Institute of Pure and Applied Chemistry of Ateneo de Manila University revealed that its blood, flesh, liver and intestines were contaminated with mercury, cadmium and copper.

Usually Lafayette would send out its boats to gather dead fish floating in the waters near the mine site specially on rainy days. This was testified to by Mr. Antonio Casitas, head servant of Sagip-Isla, Sagip-Kapwa, during a dialogue called by Bishop Lucilo B. Quiambao of the Diocese of Legazpi on September 30, 2008. Mr. Casitas daringly spoke in front of the media, government representatives, and executives of LG, Kores and MSC, the new owners of Lafayette. The company would also buy dead fish from residents who find them. The reason for this is obvious: to hide any evidence of the daily death of fish that happens around the island.

The sperm whale found on July 19, 2010 was a mammoth. Residents of Rapu-Rapu testify that Lafayette personnel went to the site and tried to haul away the whale. Members of the Philippine National Police and employees of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources also came. On July 20, 2010, BFAR Regional Director Dennis del Socorro was interviewed by the television network ABS-CBN and he said that his office would look for bullet wounds and bury or burn the whale that same day.

This statement arouses our suspicion that BFAR will not conduct a thorough investigation but focus only on its “bullet wound” theory as the cause of the sperm whale’s death. We call on that agency and the DENR not to repeat their action in October 2007 when they hastily concluded that the mining operation in Rapu-Rapu was not the cause.

Lafayette itself has a record of evasions in the wake of implicating incidents. In 2005, they deflected culpability by claiming that the fishkills harmed only “two kilograms of thumb-sized fish” despite the testimony by Binosawan residents that they gathered two sacks of palm-sized dead fish near the shores and not yet counting the dead fish far out into the sea.

On July 19-21 2006, during the “tutorial runs,” 9 kilograms of dead marine organisms were found in the shorelines after the pipes leaked. The company just claimed that only water leaked and, therefore, the death of the marine organisms could not be blamed on them.

On October 26-29, 2007, another fishkill occurred. The company defended itself by claiming that the site of the fishkill was seven (7) kilometers away from the mine site which they said did not operate at the time. (See rebuttals of the claims in a previous article)

When Jessie Ecleo was murdered by a CAFGU serving as company guard, they attributed the crime to “love triangle.” When children suffered from skin diseases after swimming in the beach, the company and the Municipal Health Officer claimed that the cause was not heavy metal contamination but bacteria.

Now this dead sperm whale adds to the growing preponderance of evidences. We will not take sitting down any knee-jerk response by BFAR, DENR or any agency the way they did in the past. There should be a sampling of the whale’s flesh and internal organs and a third-party laboratory analysis should be done. Looking for bullet wounds and speedily disposing of the carcass is not the responsible action to take. These government employees are beneficiaries of our taxes and they owe us the truth. They are mandated by the civil service code to exert all effort in the performance of their duties. Anything less than that will smack of flagrant cover-up. Prove to us that under the new administration of President Benigno C. Aquino III, there is no corruption. Otherwise, they should start packing up for we will petition the new President for their removal from office.