ILIGAN City ― After all the sounds and fun activities brought about by the month-long Diyandi festival, this city has to face something not as pleasant. But very pleasant for the other party. The parties involved are the city folks dwelling below and the prospective miners, who else.

I'm talking too of this brewing mining business story at Rogongon, this city.

I compare this situation to a tug of war. Whereby the parties are divided into two ― one on the left, and the other on the right. Both parties have to be equal. And there is a huge rope to be pulled by either side. So the length of the rope will reach equally to each side. Otherwise, how will the parties manage their pulling effect? At length then one party is drawn to the more forceful side. When that happens, it is now "game over"

It's a fun game. It's still played today. But not literally.

Take this mining "game." It's been "playing" for months now in said area, which is a hinterland barangay of this city, several hundred feet above sea level. But most of the players are invisible. Especially, the miners. Yet they say that when there's smoke, there's more smoke that's indicating more smoke.

Oh, I think you know what I mean. City mayor Frederick W. Siao says, "No to mining policy." The stories going around say that 140,000 hectares are about to be mined there for gold and copper. Others say that no, it isn't 140,000 but 160,000. Whatever.

The thing is, it brings back sad memories of the Sendong tragedy in 2011. Which sent thousands either dead or missing. But it was due to loggings in the uplands and with the arrival of a typhoon, sent these small, big, bigger, and biggest pieces of lumber spiraling down to the barangays down below. Thus the tragedy. This city and Cagayan de Oro suffered the brunt of it.

I remember that a few weeks later when most of the city folks had somewhat regained their bearings so to speak, regarding that tragedy that was Sendong, there was a press conference by city officials in barangay Acmac, one of the low-lying barangays here though less affected compared to the others. The reporters converged at a makeshift structure. Around us were the logs, small, big, bigger, biggest. All of them had journeyed to the poor low barangays of the city. Some of them saved lives as dwellers rode on them. But many of them were pinned to death by those darn logs.

To date, one can still see by the roadside at barangay Hinaplanon, a tarp of a young girl over a huge log which saved her from a watery grave.

And I heard on air the city folks fear that the barangays affected would not be Rogongon or the other hinterland barangays like Digkilaan or Hindang but the barangays down below. It is said that gold and copper are the minerals to be mined there. Of which that area might be rich with., Never mind if they pollute the rivers there that flow to the sea. "Lonely rivers flow, to the sea, to the sea/ to the open arms of the sea…" so a ghost of a song goes.

I texted a radio anchor, Melvin about some miners at CDO who were arrested by a composite team of the NBI, police officers who were reported to be mining there at some hinterland barangay and polluting the Iponan river using mercury too.

The anchor commented that that kind of mining was said to be "illegal.''

But then, I thought, the logs that went with the waters during that Sendong were products of both legal and illegal logging. Because the logs don't care if they were logged legally or illegally.

For it is a "to whom it may concern affair!" Because folks can't say, "Don't hit us because you are illegally cut!" Hu hu hu.

The effect of mining in the hinterlands on the dwellers below is the same as logging. The late Uriel "Jojo" Borja was emphatic about this. Several times, he even took the reporters to a hill, mind you, just a hill, not a mountain, pointing out to them that trifling with that hill would be dangerous. Because, he said, the soil is soft and it would come crashing down on poor creatures or things that would stand in its way. One time, he added, a kid of his friend, Jojo Boza nearly drowned there because of some heavy rains in the mountains. So, how much more if that hill near his home is to be trifled with? It was then learned that the government was planning to traverse via said hill instead of following a road around it to connect with a southern barangay like Suarez. Because the route was shorter.

He then took to the courts. And the court took notice. A judge then even made some inspections there.

Now about this mining business at Rogongon, I bet there's some stealthy aspect to this. Because, the barangay chair of said area, Randy Pugoy "couldn't be reached" for comment on the matter. Only a Kagawad, by the name of Zaide Serino said, in the gist that it's a "not yet." Which could be interpreted as a "tomorrow"? Like that joke on some dialogues of some cats which say, "Now, now…" With the female cat saying, "tomorrow, tomorrow?:"

City councilor Betzy Zalsos though, who is a CPA and a lawyer by profession said that when she came over there at Rogongon, she saw that there was no mining activity ― yet. But residents there told her of vehicles going about there. And some "heavy equipment." Meaning, ah, one can make some analysis.

There were no pronouncements as to the thoughts ― or decisions ― by the previous administrations of then-mayor Celso G. Regencia. Or by the Mines Geosciences Bureau under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. So, what else can be said of this matter?

I stick to my view. That it is a virtual tug of war.

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