Buaya Tribe Resists Mineral
Exploration
The Buaya
tribe of Kalinga province affirmed their opposition to the mineral
exploration venture by Cordillera Exploration Inc. (CEXI) in their
ancestral domain in both Kalinga and Apayao provinces.
By Abigail
T. Bengwayan
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BALBALAN,
Kalinga - The Buaya tribe of Kalinga province last week affirmed their
opposition to the mineral exploration venture by Cordillera Exploration
Inc. (CEXI) in their ancestral domain in Tawang and Laukon, Balbalan town,
including a portion of Conner in Apayao province. The exploration
operations cover 8,000 hectares.
Residents of Barangay (village) Tawang signed a declaration Oct. 2,
registering their stand against the CEXI exploration. They said that the
CEXI activities in their tribal domain would only lead to human rights
violations.
A copy
of the declaration was submitted to the National Commission on Indigenous
Peoples (NCIP) - Tabuk.
During
the Asia Pacific Mining Conference picket in Makati on Oct. 11, Buaya
elders Juanito Baguingan and Canuto Bagsao said that the voting held in
their community last Oct. 2 misrepresented the real position of the tribe.
“The
residents of Brgy. Tawang boycotted the voting to show their opposition to
the project,” they said. The results reflected that only two individuals
were against the mineral exploration, as reported by a local publication.
The
women of Tawang authored a separate statement expressing their opposition
to CEXI’s exploration activities, and its eventual mining operations. The
same statement was also forwarded to the NCIP-Tabuk.
Tribal
elders from Conner and Buaya participated in the Oct. 11 picket in Makati,
deploring the onslaught of corporate mining in the region, which they said
is at the expense of indigenous peoples in the concerned communities.
Nordis / Bulatlat
Cordillera – Still the Main Hub of Transnational Mining
First of three parts
Foreign TNCs
Dominate Mining Industry
Second of three parts
Arroyo’s Priority
Mining Projects a Boon to TNCs
But small-scale miners will be
displaced
Conclusion
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