Local village folks, mainly indigenous peoples in Licuan-Baay, Abra have clashed with government over allowing mining operations in their town as they have shut down their doors to any mining activity.
BY ACE ALEGRE
Contributed to Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 8, March 16-29, 2008
Local village folks, mainly indigenous peoples in Licuan-Baay, Abra have clashed with government over allowing mining operations in their town as they have shut down their doors to any mining activity.
This even as Abra Rep. Cecille Luna said allowing mining operations will spur much-needed development in the province, one of the 20 poorest in the country.
Canadian mining firm Olympus Pacific minerals Inc. is aggressively pursuing its mining interests in Baay-Licuan town. It entered into an agreement with its Philippine partners Abra Mining and Industrial Corporation (AMIC) and Jabel Corporation (Jabel) on Nov. 23, 2006 for the 43-square kilometer Capcapo Project in the Abra town.
The firm reportedly started its drilling operations in February 2007 at Capcapo mountain where seven holes have already been drilled. It has reportedly intersected “significant gold and copper” at Capcapo.
Olympus likens the profile to the Baguio-Mankayan Gold-Copper District, where since the early 1900s several mining firms have been operating.
“Absolute ban”
But local townsfolk are banning Olympus and any other mining firm from doing any mining-related activities in the area.
Some 150 representatives of citizen’s groups who gathered in Poblacion Licuan over the weekend formed the Baay-Licuan Takderan Omnu a Karbengan (Balitok), a multi-sectoral alliance wanting to preserve their ancestral domain.
Balitok is the local term for gold.
“Olympus wants to mine our mountains and our lands…what will become of us if these are mined out?” resident Flordeliza Sannadan said, while questioning the purported improvement of the quality of life with the acceptance of mining in the community. “After years and years of mining in Benguet, are there any improvements in the lives of the people there?”
Engr. Neoman dela Cruz, regional director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau had time and again reiterated that mining firms must have the consent of the host community before any mining operation could be initiated, otherwise, they will be illegally operating.
Luna also said that as long as safety mechanisms are followed, mining per se is not bad for the province. Allowing mining will certainly bring in progress to the province, she enjoined her constituents.
She said she and Abra Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin support the opening of mining ventures in the province that are meant to benefit the Abreños.
Brewing conflict
But a seeming conflict is brewing.
The role of the military is also being seen as a major component in pacifying the residents’ stance against mining.
The “A” Coy of the Philippine Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion had reportedly “occupied” villages adjacent to Capcapo in Baay-Licuan town since late January this year, purportedly “to drive away armed NPA (New People’s Army) rebels (from) the town and not because of mining operations.”
The Agustin Begnalen Command of the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army) however says otherwise. Its spokesman Diego Wadagan said despite being driven away by local townsfolk in 2005 from their patrol base in Sitio (sub-village) Bituen, Brgy. Lenneg, Baay-Licuan because of alleged human rights abuses including killings of villagers, the military unit wants to return to do security for the entry of mining.
UN (United Nations) Special Rapporteur Philip Alston received reports on the alleged military abuses in Baay-Licuan including alleged destruction of crops, theft of civilian properties such as cows and other poultry, harassment and intimidation.
“And now, why is the 41st IB hell-bent in maintaining its intrusive presence in barrios adjacent to Capcapo?” Wadagan said.
But Lt. Eduardo Sia-ed, spokesman of the 41st Infantry Battalion belied such. The troops in Baay-Licuan, he said, “are for regular Internal Security Operations against the CPP/NPA/NDF (Communist Party of ther Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front) and not to secure mining explorations or exploitation of their environment.”
Sia-ed instead accused the CPP-NPA and other “left-leaning groups” of agitating the people and drawing their sympathy.
But Wadagan said that in more than a month of staying there, the military has not engaged in a firefight with any NPA unit yet. “It is the gold, and not the NPA that attracts the 41st IB in Baay-Licuan,” he insisted.
”It is pure leftist propaganda,” Sia-ed maintained.
“Mining boom”
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has declared that the investments in the Philippine mining industry have grown to over a billion dollars from 2004 to 2007.
The boom comes from the exploration, mining operation, and construction and development activities of some 63 mining companies, including that in Baay-Licuan town, the DENR said.
“The much-hailed ‘mining boom’ is definitely no cause for celebration,” Clemente Bautista Jr., national coordinator of Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) however said.
“They have planted and activated 63 environmental time bombs all over the Philippines in the form of mostly foreign-owned large-scale mining projects," he warned.
Mining permits, Bautista Jr. claimed, have been approved left and right from 2004 to 2007, “without regard for environmental protection and community consent.” He said the mining projects will “trigger a tidal wave of environmental and social catastrophes.”
”In the span of three years alone, the country was permitted to be turned into a literal and figurative mine field, a dangerous and barren landscape where all sorts of catastrophes and tragedies related to indiscriminate and large-scale mining operations could explode,” Bautista explained.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “the first casualties of this assault are not the government officials who approve mining permits nor the executives of filthy-rich firms, but the people and communities on the ground: indigenous peoples displaced from their ancestral lands, upland settlers, farmers, fisherfolk whose livelihoods are endangered by mine wastes.”
Baay-Licuan is part of the ancestral domain of the Binongan, the indigenous people of Abra. Contributed to Bulatlat
