The illegal mining spin

By Peter Clarete

THE camp of the prime squatter almost succeeded in spinning the minds not only of the Lumads in the hinterlands but of some others in the circles of, according to my fearless forecast, the next chief executive of Cagayan de Oro, Oca Moreno.

Lumads in the hinterlands sought the help of Mr. Zaldy Ocon, a radio commentator who is reportedly tagged by Oca Moreno himself as “The Exorcist” of the prime squatter.  Then Mr. Ocon somehow got overboard after he received a text message daring him to leave the Liberal Party because of his stance with respect to illegal mining that was perceived by not only the prime movers of Sulog but also by the commentator’s partymates to be in conflict with the party’s position regarding the issue of illegal mining.

The story goes like this. Some “authorities” were reportedly going around the hinterlands where panning mining were done on a daily basis as the regular means of livelihood of the Lumads. The message that was supposed to have been ordered by Oca Moreno was that the panning miners would be arrested right there and then if caught panning for that glittering gold along Iponan river.

To make this column short, it finally came out that it was the camp of the prime squatter that spread the warning to the Lumads as part of the disinformation tactics of the prime squatter’s dirty tricks department.

I agree with Mr. Ocon that the “president” of the city committee on environment was correct in saying that there was no illegal mining in Iponan River.  This is because he deviously could have been referring only to the panning miners, not the large-scale miners which he and the rest of his camp, led by the prime squatter, refused to see or pretended to be inexistent despite damning evidence to the contrary. The committee president was correct, but he lied.

To put it in a much simpler form, my interpretation is this: the camp of the prime squatter and the committee president spread lies in the hinterlands that the Lumads who were doing panning method mining along Iponan River were to be arrested once caught panning for gold, on orders of Oca Moreno.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, what will the prime squatter and his little-headed committee president do next?  Let’s watch out for the next show.