Mines over Citrus in Nueva Vizcaya
10,000 rights violations
reported due to mining
To the farmers, Ifugao communities, some
business leaders and government officials of Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya,
northern Philippines
a far worthy treasure more than mines exists in a budding citrus fruit
industry in their province blessed with fertile land, a hospitable climate
and lush forests.
BY FELICISIMO MANALANSAN
Bulatlat
Citrus or mines?
To the farmers,
Ifugao communities, some business leaders and government officials of
Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya, northern
Philippines a far worthy treasure
more than mines exists in a budding citrus fruit industry in their
province blessed with fertile land, a hospitable climate and lush forests.
Despite of the
billions of pesos expected to be gained from the citrus farms, government
favors the extractive, destructive mining by the Australian Climax-Arimco
Mining Corp. (CAMC), recently renamed Australasian Mining.
This threat of
foreign mining on Nueva Vizcaya’s citrus fruit farms was among the
highlights of the mining forum entitled “Defend Land, Life and Resources”
held on Oct. 10 at the Quezon City Memorial Circle Seminar Hall. Organized
by Defend Patrimony, the forum was attended by more than 100 participants
who later on marched to the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) in a symbolic protest action.
|
CITRUS OVER MINES: A native of Didipio,
Nueva Vizcaya joins his townmates in protesting the large-scale mining
operations that threaten to kill the town's citrus industry
NORDIS
PHOTO |
A
budding citrus druit industry
Anti-mining groups in
Nueva Vizcaya have vowed to oppose the Australasian Mining under the
Didipio Earth Savers Movement (Desama). Desama leaders who attended the
conference believe that the mining will devastate the Cagayan Valley
watershed, aside from denying the land's bounty to the people of Didipio
and the entire province.
"Parang di
ekonomista ang pangulo samantalang mas malaki ang kikitain sa citrus kaysa
sa mining" (The President is not really an economist considering that
citrus will yield more earnings compared to mining), said Alfonso Acoje,
an agriculturist who claimed to have started the citrus fruit industry in
Didipio in 1997.
Currently, 500
hectares of land in Didipio are planted to citrus oranges. This is
projected to earn the province P806 billion ($14.6 billion at P55:$1),
according to a power point presentation during the forum. "Imagine if
instead of just 500 hectares, we could have 5,000 hectares of citrus,"
said Acoje whose plan to expand citrus farms to benefit farmers throughout
the province is frustrated by the mining company.
In contrast,
according to John Olandi of the Didipio Earth Savers Movement (Desama),
CAMC forecasted a dismal $1.2 billion as proceeds of its mine after mine
life. Furthermore, CAMC is silent about the environmental costs of its
operations, Olandi said.
But Olandi alleges
CAMC's bribery and "dirty tactics" are making it hard for the people of
Didipio to make a united stand. Already 12 members of the Sangguniang
Panlalawigan (provincial council) of Nueva Vizcaya gave their consent to
the mining project as against only one opposed, says Olandi.
Australian CAMC
officials claimed they have the backing of the national government in the
Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) for mining project.
Olandi also said that
since the mining company started in 1994, some farmers from the Ilocos
provinces also started settling in Didipio. He said these settlers sold
their land to the mining company and now constitute the "anomalous
majority" favoring CAMC's mining project.
More than 10,000 victims of rights violations
The forum also cited
a total of 10,500 individual victims of human rights violations related
with mining projects throughout the country in 1994-2005.
The violations
reflect a nationwide trend in human rights abuses in places where there
are mining projects, according to Clemente Bautista of Kalikasan People's
Network for the Environment, a member of Defend Patrimony. Nine activists
opposing large-scale foreign mining projects have already been killed in
different parts of the country recently, he said.
The groups
Soccskargends Agenda and Inpeace Mindanao accounted for the rights
violations in 60 documented cases involving 3,181 families in 30
communities, most of them indigenous B'laans, in the boundaries of
Saranggani, Davao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato. The cases
were documented by a solidarity and sympathy mission (SSM) led by the two
groups last September.
The human rights
violations involved cases of massacre, frustrated massacre, strafing,
torture, denial of medical attention, illegal arrest, search and seizure,
harassment, displacement and reconcentration of communities, food blockade
and divestment of property.
According to the SSM
report, human rights violations, happening from 1994 to January 2005,
coincided with the entry in Tampakan, South Cotabato, of Australian-owned
Western Mining Company (WMC), now Sagittarius Mining, Inc. (SMI), one of
two transnational mining corporations, which hold existing Financial and
Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA) with the government.
The violations also
coincided with increased military operations in the area. Five battalions
of the Philippine Army, including Scout Rangers, patrol the quadri-boundary
within the vicinity of SMI's mine site.
B'laan leader
Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of Kahugpungan sa mga Lumad sa Halayong
Habagatang Mindanaw (Kalubhamin), believes there is coincidence in the
entry and operation of SMI and increased military presence in the quadri-boundary.
To him, SMI is directly and indirectly to blame for the human rights
violations, adding that the mining company may even be funding the
military operations in the area.
"Hindi kaya ng AFP
(Armed Forces of the
Philippines) ang marami at sunud-sunod na mga operasyon kung walang
pondong nanggagaling sa SM”
(The AFP cannot afford the series of multiple military operations without
funds coming from the SMI), says Ogan.
“Where else can we
go?”
Meanwhile, B'laan
families in barangays Danlag and Tablao, Tampakan are now being coerced
and intimidated to leave their dwellings and farms to make way for SMI's
operations, it was learned. Ogan says the B'laan communities in these
barangays are located directly below the base camp of SMI. The communities
will be buried with SMI's mine waste, says Ogan.
But most B'laans in
the said barangays do not want to leave, says Ogan. Ogan adds he foresees
a repeat of bombing incidents in 1994 when a B'laan woman and the child in
her womb died when the military resorted to aerial bombardment to force
B'laan communities out of exploration sites of the former WMC.
During the forum,
indigenous peoples of Cordillera revealed similar threats of displacement.
Nearly half of the Mt. Province's 1.8 million hectares of land, or 730,000
hectares are now applied for mining permits by transnational mining
corporations (TNCs), according to Pastor Vergel Aniceto of the Cordillera
People's Alliance (CPA) and APIT-TAKO.
"Saan na pupunta
ang mga Igorot, Kankana-ey, Kalinga at iba pa naming katutubong mamamayan
ng Cordillera?" (Where else will the Igorots, Kankana-ey, Kalinga and
other Cordillera indigenous peoples go?” Aniceto asks.
Aniceto, however,
says that most people in Cordillera, including the local government, are
determined to oppose new mining ventures in the Cordillera provinces. He
cites as example a recent multi-stakeholders meeting in Baguio
City where the participants united
to block any new mining projects, despite being denied to speak during the
meeting.
The
multi-stakeholders meeting was convened by the Office of the President
through presidential envoy for mining Delia Albert, according to Aniceto.
Bulatlat
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