History and Unity in Cordi Peoples’ Struggle

BY atty. william f. claver
Founding chairperson, Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance

Greetings to all of us!

The whole Kalinga became known as the Province of Guinaang to the Spaniards who had a hard time pronouncing the correct term, Guinananes.  They used the term to refer to the area between Butbot up to Pinukpuk. Why the focus on the term “Guinaang” Because, even at that time, Guinaang was considered the most progressive area of Kalinga. The reason for such progress was the gold that was in Guinaang.  That gold was also what drew the interest of the Spaniards.

This interest in the gold in Guinaang was what pushed the Spaniards to try to control the area. They started the road work from Abra going towards Guinaang. They also started the horse trail from Cervantes towards the same area. These efforts to penetrate the wilderness were however, abandoned before 1850 - the road from Abra only reached up to Balbalasang,  the horse trail up to the area below Lubuagan.  It was this same horse trail that Aguinaldo used in his attempt to escape the pursuing Americans many years later.  To the Spaniards and to Aguinaldo, the areas of Guinaang and Balatoc were considered inaccessible. It was the Americans who were able to finally reach the area and establish the mines, which later came to be known this modern day times as the Batong Buhay Gold Mines.

What can we learn from the little story? We learn that right here in the heart of the Cordillera we have a large supply of gold and mineral resources.  We learn that both the Spaniards and Americans invaders had only one object in mind — and that is to establish their mines in order to extract the gold and other minerals for themselves, and any “so called” develo   pment they bring is all geared towards attaining their interests.  Finally, when we see that the level of social and infrastructure development in the Guinaang and Balatoc areas has not really advanced despite the mines, we learn that the establishment of mines does not necessarily benefit the people of the Cordillera.

I would also like to point out that this is not a story exclusive to Kalinga. For, in my own experience, I have found the story duplicated in various other parts of the Cordillera.

I was involved in monitoring the environmental impact of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company many years ago. While viewing the effect of mine tailings released into the natural waterways. A government expert of the then Department of agriculture and Natural Resources ruefully commented that no usable plant would be able to grow in the affected lands for the next 100 years and even more. Later, when we finally got his report, do you know, my friends, that he changed his tune?  He instead wrote that the infertility of the soil was not caused by the mines.

At the time, I was the legal counsel of Lepanto, and concurrently a councilor in the municipal council of Mankayan.  Lepanto tasked me to get the municipal government to allow Lepanto to mine above level 100, which was immediately below the most populous area of the town proper of Mankayan. 

What caught my suspicion was the fact that when the municipal government finally gave its approval, the contents of the resolution was never disclosed to me, nor was I made to sign.  Simultaneously, Lepanto ordered me to find legal ways to drive out the natives in the long-existing villages within its mining claim.  This prodded me to resign from Lepanto to take up a position in the governor’s office in the old Mt. Province in mid-1965.  It was years later, in 1972, when the effect of that resolution manifested itself when the Elementary School building of Mankayan started to tilt, then sink.  Again, the government investigation declared that the sinking of Mankayan is not attributed to the mining activities.

Again in 1971, when I was in the Constitutional Convention, the mineral deposits of the Baguio Gold Mining Company were exhausted.  It then decided to expel the long-time residents in the area in order to build a subdivision exclusively for the rich.  Do you know how they were able to do that? They had patented mining titles to the land?  Patented mining titles are much more superior compared to the ordinary land titles because the mining patentee owns not only the minerals underneath but also the land and trees aboveground.

So my friends, so much for my experiences the exploitative and anti-people face of mining in the Southern Cordillera.  Let us go back to the north – back to Batong Buhay.  Several mining companies have successively operated Batong Buhay in its many years of operation, before the Philippine government took over in 1985.  Some actually operated the mine, but others actually used it for speculative purposes.  All of them had only one thing in mind —profit.  When the State took over, the mines became an instrument of graft and corruption.

A glaring example was the government funds intended for improvement of the road network in the Cordillera leading to Batong Buhay.  Instead of using the funds within the Cordillera as intended, it was used to open Port Irene (the seaport from which BBGMI ore is shipped out), the cementing of the roads in Cagayan from Tuguegarao to Port Irene, and in the road improvement from the national highway in Gamu to Roxas in Isabela.  This bias against upland development can clearly be seen in the State priorities.

Even after operations stopped, Batong Buhay never stopped being a source of corruption.  For when you ask where all the old equipment and facilities of Batong Buhay went, you will find out they were carted away by our politicians here and of neighboring provinces.

It was the consistent effort of landowners from Isabela, Cagayan and Kalinga, under the leadership of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, which provided the fuel to the movement to stop the operations of the Batong Buhay Gold Mines.  The people of Uma, Lubuagan know this for a fact, because at that time, Uma was the base of networking of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.

The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera are being made pawns for exploitative business ventures which may be real or speculative.  In either case, the indigenous peoples always end up losers.  All mining technology currently in use, including the much touted state-of-the-art mining technology, are ALWAYS destructive of community cohesiveness as well as environmental integrity.

From our long experience, the hidden motivation in any mining business venture is always based on greed.  As we know, greed is the breeding basis of evil.  We do not even need to go further out for proof, as we have experienced it right here in Batong Buhay.

I will say it again — in the present system and dispensation, there is no hope in mining as a savior, but is instead a devil incarnate in its destruction of peoples, and of the environment.

Now, all these are complicated by the kind of government that we have at present.  This government is using its military and police forces as instruments in imposing its government pursuits, as well as to cover up its corrupt practices in unequaled proportions.

Given such a situation, what are we to do?  A review of our responses in the past may be of help.

In 1971, at the Constitutional Convention, I sponsored an Ancestral Domain Bill and a particular form of Autonomous Government to be granted to the cultural communities.  I was successful in having both bills passed and approved in plenary session, but through the lobbying of logging and mining concessionaires, the bills were shelved in July 1972.  Despite my appeals to the governors and congressmen of then Kalinga-Apayao, Benguet, Mt. Province and Abra to help lobby so that the bill could be brought back to the floor for discussion, none of them responded.  The bills were never taken up again, as martial law followed.

Then in 1974, the four dams of the Chico River Project threatened to inundate several villages from Sabangan, Mt. Province in the south, to Tomiangan, Kalinga in the north.  This “so-called” development project generated great opposition from the people.  When the NAPOCOR and Army camps in Tomiangan and Tinglayan were forcibly dismantled by the people in simultaneous actions, we demonstrated the first ever Filipino people power action in opposition to the martial law regime.

The events that followed are now well known.  For the first time, Kalinga and Bontoc villages found a common aspiration.  Unity was achieved through bodong networking, thus giving birth to the Kalinga-Bontoc Peace Pact Holders Association (KBPPHA), which then took the cudgel in the movement to oppose the dam.

The success of the association in opposing the dam attracted the support of non-Chico River villages, such as Abra, the South Western Cordillera areas and Apayao.  This widening opposition movement and consciousness of our rights as cultural minorities led to the birth of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.  This also marked the rebirth of Ancestral Domain as our shield in fighting martial law, and the idea of autonomy as the governing principle.  This bore fruits when those aspirations were enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.

As a people, we were able to achieve constitutional provisions for autonomy, ancestral domain, and regionalization.  That is how we have a Cordillera Administrative Region.

What does our history teach us?

It teaches us that not all our politicians can be depended upon.  It teaches us that we can only reliably depend on ourselves as ordinary indigenous peoples.  It teaches us that our problems as a people — exploitation, mining, logging, environmental degradation, political repression, human rights abuses — can be fought and won through unity and militant action.  Such is the reason for being of CPA, which has for its complete name, the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance for the Defense of Ancestral Domain and Self-determination.

Let us continue to persevere.  Though we have had significant gains in the past, the road ahead remains rocky and long.  Let us continue what we have started.  Let us continue to spread the net of unity and tighten the same.  Only through unity can we have strength, and only through militant action can a deaf State listen to us.

Agbiag ti Cordillera! Agbiag ti CPA!  Agbiag tayo amin!

This was Atty. William F. Claver’s keynote address during the opening of the Cordillera Day 2006 in Uma, Lubuagan, Kaliga.  Atty. Claver was the founding chairperson of Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA).

Posted by Bulatlat

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