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Frank Cimatu, Philippine Daily Inquirer, September 26, 2001 But none of the officials wanted to be responsible for instigating the lifting of the ban, press relations officer Flor Fajilan said. "They don’t want to tempt fate," Fajilan said. The events leading to the banning of women inside the Lepanto mines were incredibly eerie, she said. For one, Lepanto president Artemio Disini admitted that he was responsible for the office order banning women from the tunnels in 1978. During that time, some members of the United States-based National Basketball Association came to play with Filipino players in Manila. Because the Philippine Basketball Association at that time was headed by Carlos Palanca Jr., a member of the Lepanto board, an invitation was made to the NBA superstars to visit Mankayan. Instead, it was the PBA board members who came, together with their wives. The entourage decided to visit the mine tunnels. Miners have long believed in a superstition about women and the mines, and there was anxiety when the women went inside the tunnel, Fajilan said. After the visit, Lepanto suffered three accidents inside the mines, three months in a row, she said. The accidents stopped only when four miners were killed. Another accident occurred in 1993 when a mining engineer toured his girlfriend and two other women friends inside the tunnels. Two successive accidents again occurred, killing three miners. The mining engineer was reportedly fired. Philex Mines, based in Itogon, Benguet, does not share the same policy with Lepanto, said Philex PR department chief Redempta Baluda. When she was Philex geologist, Baluda entered the mine tunnels without any untoward incidents. But the camote miners or the small-scale miners in Itogon were even more superstitious than the Lepanto miners. Not only are women not allowed to enter their pocket mines, the camote miners don’t engage in sexual intercourse a week before they enter the tunnels as well. This would ensure their pure intentions, former mining activist Connie Dangpa-Subagan said. Because of this, pocket miners also will not move their bowels inside the mines. In the US, some mines also ban women because they hex the mines. "The origin of the belief that women in mines were unlucky is lost in antiquity. Historian George Korson says that Russian miners believed the fear originated long ago when, in the northern twilight along the Volga River, Russian peasants saw the vampire souls of women leaving their river caves to fly through the night, searching for prey," Mara Lou Hawse wrote in "Miner’s Angel." Hawse said male miners cited many instances of hexing, including what happened in a coal mine in Poteau, Oklahoma, in 1905. "Some women were picnicking near a mine. The mine was idle because of a strike, and so the women were taken for a tour. Many of the miners believed that was a bad omen and refused to return to work when the strike was settled. A short time later, the mine was wrecked by a major explosion," Hawse said. "Even famous women could bring bad luck. In March 1940, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, visited Willow Grove Mine at St. Clairsville, Ohio. The miners were nervous. Even the illustrious Mrs. Roosevelt could not be excempted from the general belief that women cast evil spells over coal mines. The miners believed that because of her visit, the Willow Grove Mine was 'hexed.' On March 16, several days after Mrs. Roosevelt’s visit, the mine blew up, and 72 miners were killed." |
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