THE DISCOVERY OF DIWALWAL’S GOLD

By Charlie V. Monforte

COMPOSTELA VALLEY PROVINCE- It was not the best of times, but the worst of times when Diwalwal was discovered by the indigenous folk. In 1980s the country under Marcos reeled on worsening economic crisis. It was August 1983 when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated. Insurgency grew by leaps and bounds in the countrysides. A long drought scorched the ricelands and farmers were hungry.

In the mining front, by early 80s corporate copper-gold mining was already teetering down to bankruptcy level following a decade characterized by the oil shock, global recession and lingering slump of world prices of copper, then the main preoccupation of large-scale mining firms. Meantime, amidst the economic hardships, uncertainties and unemployment in the countrysides, not a many folk in the province were already learning a new living found along rivers and tributaries- gold panning.

Such was the precursor of things and forerunner of events before the gold-panning group led by a Mansaka Datu Camilo “Kamini” Banad ultimately discovered the gold of Mt. Diwata on September 23, 1983.

Kamini is now a largely unforgotten hero, and his discovery buried by the tides of events throughout the Diwalwal’s 20-year turbulent mining history.

In an interview with this writer on the anniversary of the discovery in 2002, Kamini gave his background and admitted that he first learned of gold panning in Agusan del Sur. In August 1980 he went to Bayugan III, and there onwards for almost three years he learned to pan for gold. In March 1983, when the Bayugan river dried up Kamini tried to explore Naboc river. There at his own village’s river Kamini had captured free gold, with his villagemates Eugenio “Boy” Avila and Benjamin Wenceslao. Both are now also broke.

Kamini intimated that he panned Naboc river under a recollection that the river and the mountain ranges uphill were once explored in 1973 by two Japanese named as Miyoshi and Taosio and one Filipino engineer named Isaac. Kamini narrated that he was one of the group of Naboc villagers hired as guides to the Japanese explorers. Their exploration reached up to the present area of depot of the Picop. Kamini recalled seeing the Japanese laying down a map every afternoon in each day of exploration, and hearing from them that a gold deposit which could be located some two kilometers away from the depot area.

Kamini’s hindsight about the gold deposit he understood from the Japanese had caused to pan for gold going upstream of Naboc river. Kamini claimed that the Naboc folk followed his group wherever they panned in various portions of Naboc river. It was a hard time amidst a long drought that had already wrought ricelands and Naboc farmers were going to gold panning in the ways he learned from Bayugan III.

Then on September 21, 1983, Kamini, Avila and Wenceslao left downstream of Naboc river to pan upstream, obviously eluding the tailing village folk. On the next day, September 22, 1983, they reached the stream a little past the Picop depot area, where they still met gold occurrences. They slept there. On September 23, 1983, they went further upstream, climbing steeply for two hours to hurdle a four-tiered stream, sampling faster on their way until they reached by a plateau that ridges down with a difficult cliff. By past noon they reached the stream of the known Balite area, below a Picop’s bridge, near where a deserted Picop bunkhouse stood, Kamini recalled.

At that vicinity Kamini sampled sand and gravel, and eureka, he easily found gold. Thinking that they were already at area near to the gold vein, Kamini then ordered Avila to cook for their lunch. Soon after partaking their lunch, Kamini instructed Wenceslao to find for signs of gold vein up along the river following Kamini’s description, as he and Avila would scour the vicinity. Later, Wenceslao returned. Kamini asked, did you find what I described? Wenceslao retorted, yes! And they went to the place Wenceslao had located to verify. Then and there, Kamini gushed: “Pastilang bulawan! Mao na ni! Tinuod diay ang mga Hapon!” (What a plenty of gold! This is it! The words of the Japanese are indeed true!).

The sight they had was actually a shattered head of the Balite gold vein that had been earlier bulldozed when Picop had its construction of the logging road. Kamini said that Picop had its road construction done from 1979 to 1983. He said that the vicinity was already logged over by Picop when they had arrived. The head of Balite gold vein that was struck during the road construction in Balite area was unknown to the Picop personnel.

The three then panned in the area, and it took them a short time to fill their small merthiolate bottle with free gold sand and nuggets they could capture after simply rotating the sand and gravel from the shattered vein materials with their pans. On the next day, the three fortunate souls returned home with a secret they had to keep only to a few in their downtrodden village. (Compostela Valley News Digest, August 2003) email: charliemonforte@yahoo.com