maybe this explains all the buying

I found this on google news and this sort of confirms a favourable outcome with announcement this week and may push this quicker than before if they find national security was comprimised. Any opinions welcome.

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=politics05_may17_2006

Left using antimining fronts, NBI told
The National Bureau of Investigation’s Bicol district office is looking at all angles in its investigation of the fish scare hoax in Sorsogon, including the possible role of some politicians and militant groups in using antimining fronts to block mining in the countryside to keep the rural population poor and susceptible to recruitment.

Lawyer Tomas Enrile, head of NBI’s team that is looking into the hoax upon the request of Albay’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan, said the NBI is taking this issue seriously because if proven true, it would concern national security.

“The economy must be protected against any destructive efforts by any vested interests or groups, including the militant because if they are allowed to succeed, then the peace and order situation will never improve,” he said.

Enrile’s team is now trying to identify the people who started the fish scare hoax in Sorsogon. An unidentified group submitted fish samples contaminated with mercury for testing and used the results to scare the people from eating fish. About 5,000 Sorsogon fishermen were affected.

Initial NBI findings showed that the fish samples were transported on a Philtranco bus and submitted to Bureau of Fisheries in Manila. Despite this irregular and unscientific process, Bureau of Fisheries proceeded to test and analyze the samples and released its findings to the group.

These findings were then used to claim it was Lafayette’s Rapu Rapu project that caused the contamination of the waters and fish of the coastal areas of Sorsogon.

“There seems to be a deliberate effort to get bad results that would be used to scare the public and one possible reason may be to prevent mining from taking off. If true, this is economic sabotage and therefore we are conducting further investigations to get to the bottom of these alarming developments,” he said.

The hoax was eventually defused when five studies by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and two by the University of the Philippines National Science Research Institute showed normal levels in both Rapu-Rapu and Sorsogon’s coastal areas.