Cordillera Tribes Heighten Struggle Against Large-Scale Mines in Chico River Watersheds

Published on June 6, 2009

But these government officials’ reactions were due to the strong people’s lobbying, Pinto pointed out.

The company cannot push through with the project if the people oppose it, a representative of a mining applicant agreed in an interview. When asked if their company can assure the people that their project would cause no environmental destruction, he was not able to answer the question.

Requesting that his identity be withheld, he instead claimed that they will follow what is mandated by laws on environmental conservation.

Revitalization of the Mining Industry

Mining in the region is part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s campaign to revitalize the mining industry, according to Cordillera regional agencies. Earlier last year, Malacañang officials said that the mining industry generated $1.4 billion in investments in the last three years.

But the supposed development to be brought by mining is being questioned by elders and local officials. Sagada Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council) member Jaime Dugao said that the “development” brought by mining is lopsided in favor of corporate interests. Even the employment promises, Dugao said, will not assure accommodation of the locals who mostly lack technical skills needed for large-scale mining.

“We might be giving away our resources in exchange for these mining companies’ small tax payments. But the life support systems provided by our forests, our rivers and our sustainable environs could not be paid for by any amount of money,” added Dugao, who also chair an elders’ group in this province.

He added: “We are not against development. But the experience of our brothers in Benguet is an eye-opener for us. Large-scale mining has been destroying their environment since the third quarter of the 19th century since corporate mining supplanted their traditional copper mining sites in Mankayan and denuded the forests of northern Benguet for mine timber and smelter fuel.”

Addressing a recent Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) gathering on mining, Dugao appealed to the bishops to support the Cordillera peoples’ struggle against large-scale mining in the region and for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995.

Systemic Violation of Land Rights

An elder from the Tulgao sub-tribe of Kalinga, Johnny Sawadan, explained that the state’s declaration of their communities and lands as reservations and the acceptance of mine applications over their domains are “institutionalized violations” of their inherent rights to their ancestral domains.

“Our indigenous land use and utilization had been on-going prior to the establishment of colonial governments,” said Sawadan, secretary-general of the Cordillera Elders Alliance.

“Various international laws where the Philippine government is a signatory and even the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and other laws recognize indigenous rights to their land and environment,” he said. But they just learn of these mining projects when these are already being processed.”

“There is no prior information dissemination to the people. Our role (as villagers) is just to be consulted on whether we allow these domains of ours that we nurtured for generations to be opened up,” said Sawadan, who cited such arrangements as “unfair for the people who really care for the environment.”

He pointed out that state policies disregard their age-old indigenous system of land ownership and are manifestations of “systemic national oppression”.

As an answer to the state policy of non-recognition of their ancestral domain rights, they are pushing for genuine regional autonomy, Sawadan said. And he hopes that their campaign will be elevated to a higher level, especially since this year is still a part of the International Decade for Indigenous People declared by the United Nations. (Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat.com)

Pages: 1 2

2 Responses to “Cordillera Tribes Heighten Struggle Against Large-Scale Mines in Chico River Watersheds”

patricia Says:
July 13th, 2010 at 1:14 am
need some more trives to enumerate,to know how many trives in cordillera
Alice B. Alagon Says:
August 3rd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
How many more lives have to be sacrificed for this cause? The answer, friends was just blown towards my direction by the winds of Typhoon Lando… for as long as there are people who are clothed with greed and blinded by gold, many more lives. God forbids!