#diwalwal

Tale of the Two Encantadas

Poem written by: Rosas Pandan

Photographed by: Lex Studios

Moncayo, Davao de Oro, Philippines - Deep into the mountains of Mount Diwata Mountain Range, the gold rush fever that is Diwalwal is still going on even after five decades. located in Barangay Mount Diwata, Monkayo, Davao de Oro, this gold rich village, once had a population of 100 thousand, living on the edges of the mountain, drawn by their dreams of striking gold and making it rich. .

Five decades since the gold rush started, the frentic activities of digging for gold still continues. Tunnels are still being carved out deep into the mountains. What was once an easy search for gold along the streams have moved into tunnels, scarring the mountains, making finding gold more difficult and dangerous.

Hundreds of miners, wearing headlamps are rushing in and out of the tunnels. Abantero, the advance team, dig deep into the tunnels looking for signs of "gold veins". They also drills into the rock for hours in preparation for the blasting operations. More than a foot deep drilled into the rocks, it is filled with dynamites. Blasted rocks are then sacked and transported outside the tunnels and into the ball mills to crushed the rocks into fine particles to separate the gold embeded in the rocks.

Yet on the sidelines of the tunnel entrances, hundreds of women called Mamunitay (pickers) are pounding and crushing larges stones. These stones are rejects from the mines but still which has gold. Many of them are daughters and wives of miners who came here decades ago. They picked the large rocks and pound to them in search of gold. .

Some tunnel operators, the rejects are given for free, some wants a percentage of the gold yield.

For 46-years old Grace Eltagonde, she have been doing the backbreaking work for 16 years now. Married to a miner, she said that it is the only work in the village. "All of us here are miners, me, my husband, and now, my son Maynard," Eltagonde said.

Eltagonde's daughter, 14-years-old Gwenneth accompanied her mom as she, like all other teenagers, busy herself with her phone. "I don't want her to be like me, I want my children to look for better job, outside of here," Eltagonde said.

"I don't want my son to be a miner, but since he earned his first share from mining, he said he would be a miner," Eltagonde said.

Eltagonde added that the pounded rocks will be sacked and stacked to at least 10 sacks before she takes it to the Ball Mills. "I pay laborers 20 pesos per sack to carry my stock to take it the milling and on a good week, we can earn 5 thousand pesos," Eltagonde said. stocking 10 sacks of crushed rock is no easy task, it takes at least 4 days to get to a desirable stock.

Five thousand pesos may be a large sum for a week's work, but she said she has to pay the laborers, and the services of the milling. "We are lucky that the owners of this tunnel gives us the reject rocks for free, other tunnel owners don't that," Eltagonde added.

Eltagonde said that her day starts at 7 AM, and ends at 5 PM. The long hours crushing rocks take a toll on her body. Her back hurts while her hands are scarred from the sharp edges of the rocks and sometimes, the hammer hits her fingers. "We don't enjoy any government benefits such as SSS or Pagibig. I don't want my children to be like us," Eltagonde said.

There are also days that there are no mining operations or that there are no rejects for them to work on. "In Licayan's tunnel, there are 10 of us here Mamunitay," Eltagonde said. Licayan is the mining operator of the tunnel.

Emma Dogoy is also a Mamunitay, and she said that their days usually starts at 3AM. "We wake up at 3am, prepare for food. we sleep early as the cold weather of the mountains provides good night rest," Dogoy said.

Dogoy, like Eltagonde does not want her daughters to be like her--crushing rocks all day. "My body aches all the time, my hand shakes, but we have no choice, this is the only job we know, the only job here," Dogoy said.

Dogoy's daughters are attending at Moncayo Colleges. "They are all taking education, and my eldest is about to graduate this March," Dogoy said proudly.

Dogoy's two other daughters are in 3rd and 2nd year in college, "A little more push, more grounding rocks, more sacrifices so they won't have to do my job," Dogoy said.

Dogoy said that after their stocks are milled, their gold refined, they will have to pay the Ball Mill Operators 800 pesos per milling batch. The milling of the rock to fine particles usually takes 7 hours. "We can net around 3,500 pesos per week. We are paying for the laborers to carry our stocks, the milling, the Mercury needed to separate the gold," Dogoy said.

"It is backbreaking work," Dogoy said.

For Melodina Lariba, an Abantera, digging rocks inside the tunnels are dangerous. "We are deep inside the mountains, safety is priority. There could a a bar down," Lariba said. A bar down is a loose rock or fragmented material from the tunnel's roof (crown) after excavation or blasting, that could fall and injured workers or worst, buries miners. some mines have operating for so long that some reached almost a kilometer into the mountains. Most tunnels also have sub-shafts that diverts into other direction. Lariba have seen and experienced deadly accidents inside tunnels.

Lariba spend more than 3 decade of her life in Diwalwal and she wished that there is an established way to make mining safer. "The woods that we used to support the tunnel would decay in years, it weakens the structure. We alway need to be aware of our safety inside the tunnel," Lariba said.

Lariba, unlike Dogoy or Eltagonde, is fortunate. She now owns her own tunnel and employs several miners. Lariba said that jewelers, and those who loves to wear gold jewelries must know how difficult and what dangers miners faced to get that gold.

"Diwalwal's days are not behind us, there will always be mining here, there will always be gold here, and the pursuit of gold will continue," Lariba said as she pointed to the mountain across Diwalwal as the new gold rush site.

"Gold will always be gold, the percieved value is in the dangers we miners face to get the gold," Lariba said.