Indigenous communities in Benguet have recently decided to reject the mining operations of Philex, which they say have displaced natives and destroyed the local environment in the last 50 years.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 23, July 15-21, 2007
ITOGON, Benguet – “Maymayat a sumardeng da laengen nga agminas ta aywanan min nu anya ti nabatbati kadagiti danum ken dagdaga mi” (It is far better if they stopped mining so we could restore whatever little water and land left).
Thus said a community elder of the Ibaloi-dominated Camp 3 barangay (village) in Tuba, Benguet as he summarized the sentiments of the people living near the mining site of the Philex Mining Corporation at the boundary of Tuba and Itogon towns.
Appearing resolute, representatives of almost 20 communities in Itogon and Tuba adversely affected by more than 50 years of Philex’s mining operation iterated their decision to stop mining in a meeting at the outskirts of the mining site July 9. This was three months after the Kalanguya tribe refused to issue the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) required by law for the company’s mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) within the 9.8 hectare land claimed by the heirs of Baldomero Nevada, Sr.
The rejection rooted from the community perception that the mining company does not respect indigenous peoples, their yearning to preserve the undamaged properties and the company’s failure to settle land claims with the indigenous peoples, as well as its inability to address community issues such as depleted water sources and the non-payment of assessed land claims.
Philex started mining in 1958 at the boundary of Itogon and Tuba towns, both in Benguet, affecting residents of Barangays Ampucao and Camp 3, respectively. Philex’s mining permit expired in January 2007, according to residents. Government records confirmed this.
Recently, the company obtained a special mines permit from the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (MGB-DENR). The said permit included a provision that the permit may be revoked once Philex failed to comply with any applicable provisions of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) – among which is securing the required FPIC.
The special mines permit allowed Philex to mine while the MPSA docketed as APSA-102 with the DENR was being processed, according to MGB Regional Director Neoman dela Cruz. “The DENR secretary issued the permit,” he told Nordis in an interview.
FPIC not issued
Concerned Camp 3 and Ampucao folk, mostly Kalanguya, however, refused to issue an FPIC and instead issued a statement of rejection dated April 11, which the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples in the Cordillera (NCIP)-Cordillera transmitted in May. The FPIC is a necessary prerequisite for the issuance of any government approval of any project in an indigenous cultural community.
“Maymayat a paggugudua-an mi ti nabati a bassit a danum ngem ti aguray ti inkari ti Philex a danum” (We prefer to partake of the little water left to that of the water promised by Philex), Raymundo Tindaan told Baguio-based media who covered the meeting. “Pumped water is quite impossible when there are no likely sources.”
Some communities have been displaced due to mining operations. A woman in her thirties said it is but proper to rehabilitate the remaining communities. Affected by the block-caving operations are Sitios (sub-villages) Alang, Santa Fe, Liang, Agpay, Dun-oy, Lebeng, Pokis, Mansumang, Pirel, Cabanusan, Pugol, Pungol, Loakan, Oliba, Alapang, Camait, Bastian, Torre, Camaring and Cliffton – all in Brgy. Camp 3, in Tuba.
Another cluster of communities in Brgy. Ampucao in Itogon earlier stopped water flow into the mill site in May in an apparent show of protest, according to the residents.
“The block-caving method requires earth movement into the mined out level, thus scraping the slopes into flat barren lands,” a former mine worker explained. He said the company’s subsidence area has expanded from only 40 hectares in the 1990s to about 102 hectares, leaving a wider area of unproductive crater and altering land contours.
Saving what is left
The community expressed dismay over the continuing operation of Philex despite their non-issuance of an FPIC.
The NCIP had transmitted the rejection and has asked the national chairperson to issue a Certificate of Non-Consent as early as May 16.
Getting no concrete action, the community wrote MGB Director Horacio C. Ramos on June 1 asking him to revoke the special mines permit issued to Philex. They also asked Ramos to issue a cease-and-desist order against Philex for its failure to acquire an FPIC and to intercede in behalf of those claiming compensation for damaged landholdings and unpaid royalties.
“Apay pay laeng nga agtultuloy ti operasyon? Tallo a daras a naiyalis ti eskwelaan idiay Alang. Awan pay ti balbalay iti asideg na ta agbuteng dagiti tattao ken awan ti danum” (Why does the operation continue? The school in Alang has been transferred three times. There are no houses near it because people are scared and there is no water), Emilio Calje, a man about 70 years old told the people in the meeting.
Calje said he might not care if only for himself, but he said he is thinking of the little children and those who have to eke out a living to sustain their respective families. “Hanna bale kanyak ta agpakpakanak laengen, dakayo ngay nga agiput-putot pay laeng” (Never mind me because somebody feeds me, but I am concerned about you who still have many chances to bear children), he said.
Calje recalled how hunters would aim their spears at deers drinking along river banks in the site of the Philex open pit area. He said there are no more deers because there is no more water in the creeks, referring to the Mansumang, Cayapes, and Kidit creeks. Even the Tuboy River, which flows into Pangasinan’s floodplains, is reportedly heavily silted.
Philex is one of only two commercially operating mines in the province of Benguet. The other is Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation in Mankayan. Northern Dispatch / Posted by(Bulatlat.com)
