Mankayan, Benguet — Municipal officials here threatened to declare officials of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) persona non grata or unwanted persons in this mineral-rich town if they fail to give satisfactory answers to questions on the causes of the prolonged subsidence of a big portion of Barangay Poblacion.

During its recent regular session, the municipal council sent out of the session hall Engineer Agustin Baliang, officer in charge of the Cordillera MGB’s mine safety and environment division, when he failed to give satisfactory answers to the councilors’ questions on the reasons behind the worsening subsidence in the town.

Most of the councilors did not buy Baliang’s explanation that the sinking on Aurora St., Mankayan, which forced the MGB to declare the area as a critical zone, was caused by the existence of a fault line underneath which is aggravated by the highly fragile rock and soil formations.

The municipal officials were irked by the alleged failure of the Cordillera MGB to categorically state the cause of the rapid subsidence in Barangay Poblacion, noting that hundreds of residents are being forced to vacate their multi-million-peso structures due to the problem.

They also deplored the lack of guarantee of assistance from concerned national government agencies and Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp., which has been conducting mining operations in this town.

The provincial and municipal governments had earlier requested the Office of the President for financial assistance for the program to relocate the private and public structures built in the area, which is rapidly sinking. The officials said they have yet to receive a response to their appeal from Malacañang.

The residents, who are being displaced by the continuous, rapid sinking of their place, criticized the concerned national and local governments for their failure to provide them sufficient assistance in the relocation of their structures to safe grounds.

The municipal council said the MGB officials have not satisfactorily answered their questions on the cause of the sinking, claiming that the place is a former working area of Lepanto in the 1980s.

But Lepanto executives assured provincial and municipal officials they are willing to shoulder one-half of the expenses for the conduct of an independent study intended to ascertain the cause of the sinking.

The executives said, however, that everyone must respect the findings of the study once it is released.

The independent team will be composed of representatives of Lepanto, MGB, provincial and municipal governments and some non-government organizations.

Earlier studies conducted by the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP-NIGS) and MGB showed that the sinking is caused by both natural and man-made activities, and so there is a need for residents to evacuate the affected area.