Residents of MacArthur, Leyte protested in February against Mac-Arthur Ironsand Project Corporation (MIPC) for blacksand mining in their town. Behind the operation is the Romualdez dynasty, which also controls other destructive mining operations in Eastern Visayas.

The MIPC is a contractor of Strong Built Mining Development Corporation (SBMDC). The Mines and Geosciences Bureau-Region 8 in 2007 granted SBMDC a 25-year Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) covering 7,411 hectares of land in the towns of Dulag, Mayorga, MacArthur, Javier, and Abuyog. The SBMDC was bought in 2024 by Bright Kindle Resources & Investments Inc., owned by former House Speaker and Leyte first district congressman Martin Romualdez, cousin of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Residents oppose the operation because mining will destroy farmlands and irrigation systems critical to food production. Some peasant have reportedly been barred from entering their own lands. Residents’ collective action in 2022 forced the temporary shutdown of MIPC-SBMDC operations.

Before the MIPC-SBMDC entered MacArthur, Nicua Mining Corporation had already operated blacksand mining in the town. The operation contaminated Lake Bito with an accumulation of oil and other chemicals dumped from the mine, repeatedly killing tons of fish and other aquatic life. In 2012, residents of Barangay Villa Imelda and Barangay Liwayway barricaded against the operation.