A joint military, police and fire bureau investigation is currently ongoing at the mine site of Citinickel Mines and Development Corporation (CMDC) in the southern Palawan municipality of Narra after a fire burned down its thatch-roofed bunkhouse 8:00 p.m. Sunday night.
Palawan Provincial Police Office (PPPO) Sr. Supt. Atanacio Macalan Jr. said nobody was hurt in the fire that completely burned down the bunkhouse of the CMDC that is located on a hilltop.
Made of light indigenous material, it reportedly serves as resting place for mine workers of the CMDC, and as storage area of the implements they use. He said empty shells were found in the initial investigation that was conducted by the Municipal PNP of Narra.
Macalan said the joint investigation is considering two things: involvement of members of the New People’s Army (NPA) operating in the south, and that the fire was an inside job.
“We are not discounting that the NPA is involved in the fire,” Macalan Jr. told the PNA, adding that it could also be an inside job. He did not elaborate on this.
Incidentally, the fire happened while the a multi-partite mining team (MMT) is in the area of the mine site to conduct its quarterly inspection of the CMDC.
The CMDC is the same mining corporation penalized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) after its tailing pond broke down and spilt silts in November last year in Narra.
The DENR imposed upon it to fine more than P500,000 to compensate damaged farmlands surrounding the mine site.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=518634
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