Bantay Kita statement on the Mainit, Surigao del Norte landslide

Last May 11, a landslide occurred in the village of Siana located in the town of Mainit, Surigao del Norte which was reportedly triggered by the failure of the tailings storage facility supervised by the Greenstone Resources Corp. (GRC) and subsidiary of Toronto Ventures Inc. Resources Development Inc. (TVIRD), a publicly listed Canadian mining company. This incident buried numerous houses and displaced at least 50 families who evacuated to the municipal gyms in the towns of Tubod and Mainit.

Bantay Kita stands resolute in its mission to hold both the GRC, TVIRD and relevant government agencies both in the Philippines and Canada regulating mining operations unequivocally accountable for the chain of events culminating in this disaster. We adamantly assert that such calamitous failures in tailings storage facilities could and should have been averted through rigorous oversight by both the mining company, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Canadian government. 

GRC already has a history of issues related to tailings storage facilities that resulted in the stopping of its operations in the Siana Gold Project for almost two years before getting the clearance to operate once again. This incident, along with the Maco landslide two three months prior on the same island, should serve as a warning to the Department of Environment Resources to further implement robust measures to ensure the safety of host mining communities. Moreover, foreign Canadian mining companies such as TVIRD must be held accountable within home and host states for the social and environmental damages incurred through negligent mining operations. 

​Furthermore, following this tragedy, we assert the urgent need for accountability and justice to be served for the affected communities. The loss of lives, destruction of homes, and devastation of livelihoods necessitate more than superficial expressions of regret or vague commitments to change. It is crucial that those accountable are not only held legally responsible but also subject to the full weight of community justice. The impacted families are entitled to restitution, comprehensive support, and meaningful participation in determining the trajectory of their communities' future. Anything less would constitute a grave injustice and a violation of their fundamental rights.

We further urge government agencies and mining companies to undertake Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) approaches to hazard mapping which enables the mapping of multiple scenarios for a particular hazard under climate change. The Probabilistic Risk Assessment Approach to hazard mapping has been recommended in 2017 by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Philippine government through the 2017-2022 and 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plans and the 2019 Climate Change Commission resolution, yet implementation has not been effectively disseminated nationwide.