Throughout human history, gold has been associated with wealth and power, and its cultural and symbolic value has made it a sought-after commodity in the world. Thus this metal is so precious that some families in the Philippines are willing to risk their lives to mine it from a muddy pit of abyss. This is called compressor mining or “pag kakabod” in there local dialect one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
In 1997 Miss Kara David made a documentary for “Bridaga Siete” and after 13 years she return to the gold rich town of Paracale in Camarines Sur province hoping that those people she meet in the the mine pit would had a better life now for all the hard work and sacrifices that those miners and their children had made mining for gold. Miss Kara and her team arrive in the small community early in the morning and immediately look for Jimmy Dasco, the boy that she met in the mining pit last time she visited the community.
Jimmy Dasco is no longer a young boy but a young man still stuck in the same job with his father and other family siblings. They immediately embark to the community seashore where there family mining location is located and in there way there Jimmy’s father Agapito told Miss Kara that the “pag kakabod” mining is handed down through generation. From his grandfather that used to dive the river to get the mud with tiny bits of gold in it and the job had been past down to him. Now after 24 years Mang Agapito is still working in the pit with all his male sons and a daughter alike.
Jimmy was only 9 years old when he started working with his father back then and now Jimmy is the main man who drops in the pit and shovels for those mud with gold bits. Jimmy tools down in the pit is just a google and shovel and the most important lifeline is a small hose from the compressor where he used to breathe air down in the pitch black pit. Without any proper diving equipment Jimmy exposed himself to more risk where his father Agapito had told Miss Kara that he in the past experience a near death situation when the wall of the pit he was inside fell and had him pin down and need to force his way up to come out alive from that encounter. After an hour of shoveling Jimmy’s mud had some tiny bits of gold in it and he spent another 3 hours shoveling inside the pit and finally came out from the pit exhausted
For Miss Kara she felt bliss seeing Jimmy come out of the pit, in one piece. After that she did not expect that Jimmy’s much younger brother Junel would soon follow to take his turn down the pit. In this backyard mining industry most is operated by family and all laborers are family members that are working hand in hand for a common goal of finding that precious metal. In Jimmy’s account he started as a 9 year boy, first it was just for school expenses but later on he totally forgot school and had to take on the responsibility of helping his father for he is the eldest son of the family. Jimmy said that he do not want his younger siblings to follow him that had to drop out of school in the early age but some of his younger sibling also chose to do the compressor mining job.
Junel the younger of the Dasco siblings, started working the pit at a young age of 8 and he tried to juggle school and compressor mining. Junel does the compressor mining only on weekends and he can earn 1 dollar for his two days work and that would be used to his weekly budget for his school activities. He is a 3 time repeater in Grade 1 year level, not that he’s a below average student but he choice to help his family in the pit and resulted to be always absent in his class. For Junel if given a choice compressor mining is a hard job that he wants to get out and education is the only way to alter his current hardship.
Curious of what it is like to be inside the muddy pit, Miss Kara takes on the challenge of dropping into the pit. Miss Kara put on the goggles and strap the small hose from the compressor and began her drop in the pit. After a few seconds she resurfaces terrified and shocked at what she endured inside the pit. A hole just large enough for a single person to shovel at a pitch black condition, she said that it is like you can feel what is claustrophobic when you are inside the pit. She can not imagine what a miner would go through being inside the pit for 4 to 6 hours. She only was in the pit for just a few seconds but then she felt very anxious and started to panic.
After a day’s work, the family finally calls it a day at about 4 PM, and immediately embarks to the main town to process the gold nuggets. After all the processing Jimmy hold a tiny bit of gold in his hand and is weighed for almost 5 grams and had a market value of 1,882 Pesos or $34.5 and would be divided to seven workers and each worker eventually had a take home pay of 5$ each.
Final Thoughts
Every day compressor miner’s put their other feet in the grave just for a few dollars and the precious gold they mine can only be in their hands for a few minutes and be sold to a buyer. Gold is just a luxury item for some that boost their social status but for the Dasco family and Junel the real gold they are after is just to get out of this current plight that they are in. Junel’s real life treasure is his Diploma that he proudly holds, not some shining metal that they mine.
