Due to community outrage
Mining Company to Return Ancestral Land to Balatoc Tribe

Due to community outrage and pressure, a foreign mining corporation promised through a corporate declaration that it is ready to execute an affidavit to facilitate the return of the said ancestral lands to the Balatoc tribe of Kalinga.

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

Due to community outrage and pressure, a foreign mining corporation promised through a corporate declaration that it is ready to execute an affidavit to facilitate the return of the said ancestral lands to the Balatoc tribe of Kalinga.

Guidance Management Corporation (GMC) accedes to the demands of the Balatoc tribe for the cancellation of Tax Declaration No. 2005-08003-01280 and Property Identification No. 078-08-13-071, which effected the sale of the land, according to the company’s corporate declaration signed by its executive vice president Antonio Ernesto S. San Jose. The land in question was registered by the GMC with the Kalinga assessor's office when it supposedly bought the land from the nine Balatoc residents in August last year.

“I will execute an affidavit re-conveying the subject property to the rightful owners, as well as other legal documents that would be required by the Kalinga Assessors’ Office to effect such re-conveyance,” stated San Jose in his corporate declaration dated March 2.   

Nordis learned that nine members of the Balatoc tribe were allegedly enticed to sell almost 400 hectares for P8 million ($155,915 at an exchange rate in August 2006 of $1=P51.31) to the GMO. The nine were identified as Antonio Gumabay, Benhur Cawis, William Layugan, Gonzalo Sagngangao, Balusa Baguiwan, Oque Eway, Domingo Tullabang, Benedict Cayabo, and Maximo Bongal. Sagnganagao allegedly led them in the sale on Aug. 24, 2006 which was registered with the provincial assessors’ office.

The contested ancestral land includes the areas covered by the Batong Buhay Gold Mines (BBGMI). It contains gold and copper ores and is situated at Bonnag Ollaw, Balatoc, Pasil, Kalinga.  It used to be a part of a sequestered geothermal plant. 

Void sale

The community’s opposition resulted in the issuance by the provincial office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) of an opinion that the affidavit of waiver of rights and interests of Sagngangao and his companions in favor of Joaquin Rodriguez of the GMC is void.

“The ancestral domain cannot be transferred through sale or donation to non-members of indigenous cultural communities as per Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997, and its implementing rules,” said William C. Puday Jr., Legal Officer of the said provincial office, in his opinion dated March 2, 2007.

The nine persons misrepresented the community, said Victor G. Gumisa, president of the Balatoc, Kalinga Tribe Inc. (BKTI). The community members did not consent to the sale entered into by them. Attaching San Jose’s corporate declaration and the NCIP-Kalinga opinion, he filed before the Kalinga Provincial Assessor’s Office on March 5 a complaint to cancel the tax declaration of GMC arising from the sale.

Endorsed peoples’ mining

Meanwhile, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) of Kalinga passed Resolution No. 2007-006 which requests President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to issue an exploration permit to the Balatoc Tribe Exploration and Mining Corporation (BTEMC). Approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on Jan. 9, it was transmitted by the provincial government to Arroyo afterwards.

BTEMC was founded by the tribal folk of Balatoc. It was registered before the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC ) in March 2006. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

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