(Eagle News)—-Itogon, Benguet Mayor Victorio Palangdan on Wednesday, Sept. 19, .denied he was lenient to illegal small-scale mining operations in the town because of his wife, an accredited gold buyer.
In a radio interview, Palangdan said that his wife, in the first place, stopped engaging in the business early this year after miners stopped selling her the gold due to high taxes.
He said the high taxes–4 to 7 percent— were because she was an accredited buyer.
The miners instead sold the gold in the black market.
Palangdan said as a result, he went around the municipality and campaigned that the miners sell the gold to the Central Bank or to buyers accredited by the Central Bank and the Bureau of Internal Revenue instead.
Palangdan made the statement days after at least 30 people were killed after a landslide blamed on mining operations buried a chapel where they had been seeking refuge from “Ompong.”
Benguet Mining Corp. said they had ceased their operations in the area, and that it was illegal miners who continued to operate there.
Palangdan had said the Itogon government tried to evacuate those killed in the landslide but they refused.