Central Luzon region is attracting mining investors, with its rich deposits of asphalt, basalt, gold, silver, copper and zinc. Indigenous peoples, however, say the mining explorations are driving them out of their ancestral lands.
BY JHONG DELA CRUZ
Bulatlat.com
Central Luzon is attracting mining investors with a total of 286 varied applications from local and multi-national companies pending with the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau. The region is rich with high-value minerals, including asphalt, basalt, gold, silver, copper and zinc but these however, do not benefit indigenous peoples who are being driven away by the mining ventures.
The region is composed of provinces of Tarlac, Pampanga, Bataan, Bulacan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and parts of Aurora.
“We do not need land titles,” said Nelson Mallari, secretary-general of Central Luzon Aeta Association (CLAA), in opening the dialogue with the officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources August 3.
In the past nine years of the Republic Act 8371, known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, he said its provisions for ancestral land and domain titling has been a convenient way for big companies to grab their ancestral domains in Zambales province.
“Ang pagpapatitulo ang naging daan sa pangangamkam ng lupa at pagkakahati ng aming tribu,” (Land titling has paved the way to land grabbing and division in our tribes) he said.
In Porac, the regional offices of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), has given way to big mining companies, he said.
Leo Jasareno, chief of Mining Tenements Management Division of MGB, said about 500 mining applications have been lodged covering explorable areas in Central Luzon.
Mallari cited developments projects being undertaken in Zambales, such as mining, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project, and various eco-tourism projects around Mt. Pinatubo have caused the Aetas to leave.
DENR Director Jeremiahs Dolino said if the indigenous tribes oppose the projects particularly mining, as in the case of Pisumpan deposit, the project would not push through.
Application under Minerals Production and Sharing Agreement (MPSA) for Pisumpan was denied by the MGB when it failed to secure a Certification of Pre-condition from the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Zambales mines
As of June, 286 applications are pending before MGB, while 39 have been approved and registered in Central Luzon.
At least 19, 173 has. had been approved for exploration under MPSA cover.
The biggest project approved under MPSA covers some 5,800 has. in the towns of Bagac and Mariveles in Bataan. Robust Rock Resources, operator, will yield basalt as main product.
In Candelaria and Sta. Cruz towns, in Zambales province, an area of 4,619 has. has been approved for Eramen Minerals, Inc. which will mine nickel, cobalt and chromite. A big name in mining industry, Benguet Corp., will be exploring some 1,406 has. for limestone also in Sta. Cruz.
In Tarlac province, the Rock and Ore Industries Inc. will mine limestone and shale minerals in Sta. Ignacia town, covering some 2,187 has. The Balanga Bataan Mineral Corp. also got the nod of the MGB to dig gold and copper in 1,410 has. in Bataan.
Three more projects in Zambales have applications under process with MGB. One involves chromite and ore venture by San Juanico Res. Corp. covering some 478,644 has. in Baranggay Pinagrealan in the town of Guisguis, and in the towns of Candelaria and Sta. Cruz.
