Chromite Kids

Last week, our teacher showed us a documentary video about the so-called Chromite
Kids (Yaman ng Silangan) in Eastern Samar. The documentary was titled as i-Witness and it was
documented by Mr. Howie Severino. The first destination started in Tacloban, Leyte, and it was
famed due to the San Juanico Bridge and it was constructed by Marcos administration. It is the
longest bridge in the Philippines that links Leyte and Samar.Mr. Howie Severino is going to visit
the one of the poorest towns in the Philippines. The first town that they visited was in Salcedo,
Eastern Samar.According to Atty. Christopher Coles (Vice-Chair, of Provincial Mining
Regulatory Board) The Eastern Samar was rich in minerals, but in the entire Eastern Samar, the
most abundant of these minerals is Chromite. Chromite it is used as raw material for
manufacturing metal ballpoint pens, cellular phones and other everyday items all made abroad. In
my opinion, I think that mining Chromite can be a way to make a certain barangay or a town, make
a major leap to progress. But as soon as I continue to watch the documentary video, I was surprised
that the townsmen were struggling to sift the soil from the dark element (chromite). But thats not
the most surprising part of the documentary, they earn two pesos per kilo and if you try to compare
it to its market value worldwide its so little to make a living to it. They also earn 1,500 pesos per
week but due to the large deduction they only got 100-300 pesos and they also need to pay their
debts. The second topic is all about contaminated river, the color of the water used to wash the
chromite, is now the color of the river. Despite the livelihood that chromite has given to their
barangay their once bountiful land and rivers are now destroyed. According to Mr. Howie Severino,
the chromite operations began in Salcedo, Eastern Samar in 2008. The mining corporations are
owned by Chinese businessmen from mainland China or by Filipino in Manila. Among these is
Yinshu Corporation and Terrestrial Mining Corporation. Their small scale in Salcedo, Eastern
Samar was legal, in spite of how widespread their operation really is. Despite the fact that the land
is full of craters and the river is as good as dead. Thus, mining corporations violated rules such as
harming the nature, making the minors work in their mining fields but due to lack of manpower,
they arent able to monitor it properly. The i-Witness team showed the video of the river to the right
hand man the Governor of Samar. And he believes that it is an urgent matter so theyll inform the
Governor right away. so they can make an urgent decision. The Governor will/can have someone to
visit the sites and if he sees violations, he can impose sanctions. Atty. Christopher also admitted
that the respective government agencies have their shortcomings. He also told that theres no proper
coordination between the different government agencies what they really need is Political Will.
And according to Gus Docena (President of Samar Island Biodiversity Foundation), We feel
that Samar has been a victim of mining operations, it has contributed to poverty in that particular
area. Second neither the community nor the government benefit from the mining operations, the
government may benefit but only minimally. They rationalize the benefits from mining and the
community needs to gain more from these operations not the corporations and not the government.
Its the community that suffers because of the mining. In conclusion the government and Mining
Corporation must know the importance of the river not the value of the chromite in the market.