By Boy Guingguing
Publisher
Sunday PostIn Bohol, the name Domingo Chua is synonymous to massive claims of mineral deposits. From Buenavista to Anda, Chua practically blanketed a wide swath of areas believed to have yielded enormous mineral deposits, with mining claims. His control of the mining business has soared to "Imeldific heights" (when she was still alive, he used to namedrop the name of Dona Josefa, mother of the late dictator Marcos) as if its naughty equivalent is-- this is mine, this is mine, this is mine. One time, two years ago, there was even a published report that the Cebuano concessionaire owned 2/3 of Bohol's mining claims. Of course, he denied the insinuation.
But Chua's dominance of the mining trade may never be the same again. A recent incident first week of this month turned the tables on Chua's mining claims when he ran smack with Task Force Kabukiran, chaired no less by his kumpare Gov. Erico Aumentado.
This developed after the recent raid by the National Bureau of Investigation involving a manganese mine in Anda last August 6. The Anda operations which were at the behest of Chua led to speculations that there's more than meets the eye to the incident.
While the protagonists notably Gov. Aumentado and the mining claimant (Chua) traded barbs over the airlanes as to who was on the right track, the public was also treated with the spectacle of two close friends in fighting mood.
How would you describe the governor telling a radio audience that Chua was an illegal miner? Did it mean that they have already burned their friendship bridge behind? In retaliation, Chua fought back by saying that as a legitimate claimant of mining sites in Bohol, he was virtually ganged up by the group of the governor. By company, Chua meant, V-Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera, Rene Villaber of Bohol Environment and Management Office (BEMO) and Provincial Police Director Eduardo Ingking, vice chair of Task Force Kabukiran. The governor and Herrera was reported to have balked over reports that it was Chua who engaged the police services of the NBI in raiding the Anda mines.
Reading between the lines, Chua hinted that the governor was part of the gang which are out to drive him out of his mining claims. Harsh words, if you ask this Bglante.
For the benefit of doubting Thomases of Chua's mammoth mining concessions, it is an open secret that he holds a sizeable chunk of Bohol's mining deposits under the small-scale mining scheme. But no longer when he tangled a web of other claimants backed up no less by a powerful political group. The Anda incident brought to the surface that Chua has finally found his match in Anda Mayor Paul Amper who was believed to be the real power behind the permittee of the manganese mine in Anda. A certain Sofronio Simacio stood as the permit-holder whose mining claim encompassed with that of Chua. In Anda, he was known to be the dummy of Mayor Amper. The Amper group is backstopped by the governor's camp after it acknowledged that it has the legitimate claim of the Anda mine site.
Already millions of pesos worth of manganese deposits were already shipped out to China and Korea in the mine site contested by the two claimants.
Why is Chua so confident of owning scores of mining sites in Bohol?
Boasting his connection in the corridors of power, Chua is said to have mining claims all throughout Bohol because he knows "to push the right buttons where it matters most".
But with the governor now taking a direct hand through Task Force Kabukiran in going after his illicit mining operations, Chua will have to count on his powerful benefactors if only to maintain control of his mineral landholdings.
But for God's sake, he cannot also afford to mock the governor's clout in the high councils of government.
The task force was formed to police Bohol's quarry deposits including manganese, the new "cash crop" of choice among enterprising Bohol miners. That explains the mad scramble for supremacy of mining claims.
For the moment, nobody is claiming the upper hand as to who is in control of this sunrise industry. But with more and more mines yielding tons of precious mineral deposits, there's no telling that Task Force Kabukiran will have its hands full including thwarting Chua's bid to make full use of his monstrous mine holdings every step of the way.
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