Bulatlat - The Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine

This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 37, October 23-29, 2005

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?

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.

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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