JIABONG, Samar — Fishermen and farmers in Jiabong, Samar are asking that the proposed operations of a South Korean-funded mining firm involving 2,000 hectares of the town’s land area be scrapped.

Considered the hub of Eastern Visayas’ mussel (tahong) industry, Jiabong is populated by tahong gatherers and landless farmers who fear the entry of the Manganese Mineral Belt Mining and Development Corp. (MMBMDC) would disrupt the only livelihood they know.

Concerned townsfolk have claimed that the company is even planning to expand exploration work to Catbalogan City and Motiong town, which is adjacent to Jiabong.

The residents, who have formed an alliance called the Jiabongnon Nagkakaurusa nga Parag-uma Hingyap (JINGYAP), claim that the tahong production in the town dropped drastically in 2009 due to pollution caused by the operations of the Philippine Alumina Mining Corp. (PAMC), alleged to have been dumping its wastes to the sea.

The JINGYAP is claiming that no less than 37 metric tons of wastes have been retrieved from some 67 hectares of the coast devoted to mussel culture in 2009, all of which were traced to PAMC’s operations and which have resulted to losses in income of mussel gatherers here.

Jiabong depends largely on the mussel industry, which is valued at P32 million a year. The town has a territory of some 6,700 hectares.

JINGYAP said the Aquino government is poised to allow the MMBMDC’s operations since the foreign-controlled company has estimated revenues to be derived from its mining operations at a whopping $24 billion.

The alliance said it is challenging the provincial government to make good on its declaration in 2003 that it will maintain a 50-year moratorium on large-scale mining.

JINGYAP noted the permission given to MMBMDC would prove disastrous to mussel growers here since they are just recovering the losses they incurred in 2009.

“Mining is destructive to the town’s livelihood, health and environment,” underlined the JINGYAP in a statement. “Mining is not a long-term solution to the poverty of poor peasants and fishermen amid the absence of genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization.”