This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 42, November
27-Dcember 3, 2005
Tribal Leaders Denounce
Corporate Mining At
least 100 elders from the Mountain Province gathered for a two-day congress and
strengthened their opposition to corporate mining and military deployment in
communities where anti-mining sentiments are strong.
BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW BAGUIO CITY—At least 100
elders from the Mountain Province (394 kms from Manila) gathered for a two-day
congress and strengthened their opposition to corporate mining and deployment of
soldiers to communities where anti-mining sentiments are strong. The elders from the
dap-ay (indigenous socio-political institution) and the bodong (peace
pact) practicing communities gathered Nov. 20-22 at Barangay Dallic, Bontoc,
Mountain Province for the 1st Provincial Elders Congress. The
dap-ay and the bodong are institutions where the elders’ role in
community leadership is practiced. The gathering led to the
founding of the elders’ organization called the Movement for the Advancement of
Inter-Tribal Unity or Development (MAITUD) which came up with a signed unity
declaration on their position on issues affecting their systems and ancestral
domain. “The administration of
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo aggravated our situation when it opened our lands for
large-scale mining through its National Minerals Policy, which implemented the
pro-corporate Mining Act of 1995,” stated their declaration written in Ilocano. In an earlier Northern
Dispatch report, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Cordillera revealed that from
the more than 1.8 million hectares land area of the region, almost 1.7 million
hectares are applied for mining by corporate interest. The applications range from
foreign financial technical assistance to mineral production sharing agreement
and have different stages from applications to explorations. Most of the
applicants are foreign corporations. The elders’ statement
claimed that the administration’s policy allows big corporate mining
corporations to rape their ancestral domain which they have nurtured since time
immemorial. “With these applications
are widespread military deployment to ensure the implementation of the mining
projects and to silence the opposition of the affected communities,” said the
MAITUD statement. They said that the mining
of their lands is a violation of their collective right. The deployment of the
military, on the other hand, leads to various human rights violations.
The elders reported that
their right to the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) mandated by the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 were run over by the mining
applications. They cited the cases of Kalinga and Apayao where the FPIC of the
communities were not sought before the exploration by a foreign mining company.
The elders included in
their program different means to broaden their ranks and linkages for their
campaign to defend their life and dignity, and their land and resources.
The elders, through the
bodong, played a great role in unifying the Kalingas and Bontok struggle
against the World Bank-funded Chico River dams and the Tinggians struggle
against the logging by the Cellophil Resources Company over their ancestral
domain. Bulatlat © 2005 Bulatlat
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Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat