Ormegon: Sea Pebbles
“Bato-Bato Sa Dagat”
Jay Taruc’s I-Witness Documentary
Airing Date: August 17, 2009
The production of hollow blocks has been a profitable business for two neighboring towns in Leyte for the past two decades. Buyers from all places flock to San Rafael and San Jose just to buy their product. Residents here claim they have the sturdiest hollow blocks because of the ingredients that they use — black sand and a special variety of pebble that locals call ormegon.
“Ormegon” are small stones that are washed ashore by waves from the Pacific Ocean, usually deposited beneath the glimmering black sands of Leyte . Gathering them seems like an easy task, but Jay Taruc finds out that collecting these stones is no laughing matter. Strong waves pound the gatherers by the minute as sharp rocks and corals cut their skin every time they haul the pebbles using small nets. A sack of ormegon usually weighs more or less 50 kilos, which is sold for only P3.00 per sack.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is already worried that the continuous mining of ormegon could cause soil erosion and flashfloods. But to the residents, this is no cause for alarm. They believe that Mother Nature will continuously provide them their supply of ormegon.
Award-winning journalist Jay Taruc presents the plight of ormegon gatherers in his I-Witness documentary “Ormegon: Sea Pebbles,” airing this Monday midnight over GMA-7 after the late night newscast Saksi.