An Alta Village Fights for Life

Published on March 12, 2006

BY ABNER BOLOS
GITNANG LUSON NEWS SERVICE
Posted by Bulatlat

Barangay Diteki, a forest village in San Luis, Aurora, has battled mining and logging companies for years, and the 49 Alta (an indigenous people’s group) families who live in this sitio are now bearing the hardship of being outcasts in their ancestral land.

San Luis, Aurora – Ama Duwit and Ina Miling, an elderly Alta couple, sat in a corner of their small hut beside the river in this former logging camp in Barangay Diteki, a forest village in San Luis, Aurora (230 kms. northwest of Manila).

This village has battled mining and logging companies for years, and the 49 Alta (an indigenous people’s group) families who live in this sitio are now bearing the hardship of being outcasts in their ancestral land.

Ina Miling is blind. She could not tell how old she is nor can her husband but villagers guess they are well beyond 70 years. They survive on dole-out from kin and neighbours.

“Dati kaming palipat-lipat ng tirahan. Pero noong makapagtrabaho si Ama dito sa logging nagpirmi na kami. Ngayon, ako ay bulag na at matanda na kami, napakahirap ng buhay” (We used to move from one place to another. When Ama was hired by the logging company, we settled down. Now that I am blind and we are already old, life has become very difficult), Ina Miling recounts in fluent Tagalog.

In another home, a one-month-old baby boy who died just the night before lies on a bed surrounded by grieving relatives.

Strangely, the mother and the rest of clan do not know the cause of the baby’s death.

Microcosm

Mayeth Corpuz, 38, secretary general of the Samahan ng mga Katutubo sa Sierra Madre (SKSM, Organization of Indigenous Peoples in the Sierra Madre) says that the village is a microcosm of how indigenous people’s groups in the province have fared.

“What we see here is typical of what happened to other Alta communities. After being enticed to work for the logging company and the company departs, we are left with hardly any means to survive,” Corpuz, a full-blooded Alta, told GLNS.

Corpuz said that the logging company owned by a certain Ongkiko started operations in the mid-70s.

The company left more than a decade later, leaving in its wake a denuded forest that used to be the exclusive domain of the Altas, as well as other indigenous people’s groups in the province: the Ilongots, Dumagats and Igorots, Corpuz said.

“We are prohibited from getting forest products, even for subsistence. Even charcoal making from felled trees is banned. If we are caught, these are confiscated. Many are forced to deal with licensed businessmen who operate with hardly any restrictions,” Corpuz said.

“We feel that everything has been taken away from us and that we are outcasts in our land,” Corpuz said.

Logged-over

Aurora lies on the eastern edge of the Sierra Madre mountain range in Central Luzon facing the Pacific Ocean. About 270,000 has. or 87 percent of its 310,000 has. total land area is classified as forest. The rest is lowland and suited mainly for agriculture.

A report from the Multi-Sectoral Action Group (MSAG-Aurora), a local church-based organization shows that in 1951, the province was “totally covered with forest on both mountains and lowlands except in settlements and areas under cultivation.”

Aerial surveys conducted in 1989 reveal that almost the entire forest area has been logged-over, the MSAG report said.

Today, it is hard to pinpoint an area in the province that can still be considered virgin forest, according to Alfonso Van Zijl, an MSAG official.

Large-scale logging for export in Aurora started in 1960s and into the early 80s.

Nine logging companies still operate today and hold either timber license agreements (TLA), special private land timber license (SPLTL) or integrated forest management agreements (IFMA) that cover 256, 718 has. in the towns of San Luis, Dingalan, Dipaculao, Dinalungan, Dilasag and Casiguran, MSAG records show.

The biggest of these, and their permit expiry dates are the Inter-Pacific Forest Resource Corporation (IFRC)- February 2010, Industries Development Corp. (IDC)- December 2026, Verdant Agro-Forest Development Corp. (VAFDC)- March 2010 and Pacific Timber Export Corp. (PATECO)- December 2006.

The four biggest companies’ logging permits cover a combined area of 184,000 has. or 68 percent of Aurora’s total forest area. The nine logging companies cover 91 percent of the province’s forest area.

Clear waters

Ama Duwit recalls that when he was young, run-off water going to the rivers is clear and there is no siltation even during the strongest downpours. Flood or landslides were unheard of then, he told GLNS.

“But as the big trees were removed by loggers, the soil loosened-up and run-off water became murky and muddy. That is why there is flood and landslides today,” he said.

The effect of unabated logging is now wreaking havoc on the people of Aurora.

In November 2004, 112 people died and 22 remained missing in massive flash floods and landslides that occurred after a series of typhoons hit the Pacific coast.

Some P240 million in crops, livestock and infrastructure were lost in the towns of Baler, San Luis, Maria Aurora, Dingalan, Dipaculao, Dinalungan, Dilasag and Casiguran.

The disaster affected 14,804 families or 43% of the province’s population, and 14,225 has. of crops were destroyed.

In December 1995, typhoon-induced flash floods submerged 26 villages in three towns: Baler, San Luis and Maria Aurora and caused the death of 14 people.

Barangay Diteki is consistently on the list of villages affected by the disasters.

By all indications, the lives of the people in Aurora hang by a thread because of unabated logging.

In December 2005 and January of this year flash floods again occurred replicating the damage of the past years.

Landslides buried in mud a portion of Barangay Villa, a village adjacent to Diteki, and closed the main highway (Cabanatuan-Bongabon-Baler road) leading to the province. The road is still closed as of this date.

Omni

As if the danger due to logging is not enough, 31 mining companies have applied for concessions in Aurora to the government since 1995 when RA 7942, or the New Philippine Mining Act was passed by the Philippine Congress,

The applications cover 277,336 has. or 90 percent of the province’s total land area and 7,000 has. beyond the 270,000 has. classified as mountainous or hilly.

Two of these have been approved by the government—IDC, the logging company earlier cited, and Omni Mines Development Corp. (Omni) — while the rest are pending mainly due to opposition by affected sectors.

Omni is part of Omni Group of Companies which has filed 19 mining applications under at least 12 different names, according to a fact sheet of MSAG-Aurora.

The Omni group has also submitted six (6) Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) applications and 14 exploration applications covering some 203,107 has. or 39 percent of the total area under application.

The Omni group is controlled by Broken Hills Proprietary Minerals International Explorations Inc. (BHP), an Australian firm and Chase Mineral Resources Ltd. (CMR), a Canadian corporation, according to documents obtained by MSAG.

BHP is one of the biggest mining companies in the world with $18.352 billion in sales and $27.592 in assets as of 1998.

It is listed as the 41st biggest company in Asia, the 7th biggest company outside Japan and is the largest company in Australia.

“What we see here is that foreign businesses interests are out to extract our mineral resources and further ravage the land,” Van Zijl told GLNS.

Resistance

Corpuz said that their organization has been involved in protests over the intrusion of logging and mining companies in their communities.

In March 1995, residents of Diteki observed helicopters owned by Omni circling the forests near their village, she recounts.

A few months later, they learned that Omni has filed an application for exploration permit to the mayor’s office of San Luis and Maria Aurora towns.

Immediately, SKSM, MSAG and five other organizations filed a protest before the panel of arbitrators of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

With persistent lobbying and protest actions, they were able to convince the municipal council of San Luis to pass a resolution opposing the application on October 11, 1995.

The Aurora provincial board passed a similar resolution on April 2, 1996, Corpuz said.

Even Senator Edgardo Angara and Congresswoman Bella Angara-Castillo joined the opposition to Omni through letters they sent to the DENR, and a petition signed by more than 15,500 Aurora residents was also submitted to the DENR, she said.

But on February 2, 1996, the DENR granted the exploration permit to Omni.

At one point, Corpuz recounts, Alta residents of Diteki physically drove away a team of Omni employees.

“A helicopter owned by Omni landed in our village one day. Our members, holding placards and streamers approached it and asked its occupants to leave. They attached the placards and streamers to the helicopter until the employees finally relented and went away,” Corpuz said.

Finally on July 1997, they were told by Salvador Martin, director of the MGB that the application of Omni has been cancelled.

On February 2001, Omni asked the DENR to renew its application but the move was again met with protests and petitions.

“The fight is not over yet. The Arroyo government is openly advocating for full-scale mining operations by foreigners in our country. We will continue to resist,” Corpuz said.

To date, not a single mining company is able to operate in the province. Gitnang Luson News Service / (Bulatlat.com)

An Alta Village Fights for Life

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