[asia-apec 1024] Mining Opposed in the Cordillera

[BAYAN]

Respect Peoples' Rights in Mining Affected Communities

Lepanto  does not  have a heart!  The people of Tabbac, barangay
Bulalacao, in  Mankayan learned this lesson last February 5 - 6, 1999
when they staged a picket to protest the mining company's drilling
operations in their area.  At least a hundred community people
picketed the premises to show  the mining company  their  united stand
to defend  their community and to assert their basic rights.

                          Deceiving the people

The people of Tabbac never consented to the drilling operations  of
Lepanto mines in their area. No genuine consultation occurred between
the company and the affected residents . The  existence of a
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that supposedly  "consented" to Lepanto
Mines' activities in Mankayan was a product of Lepanto's machinations.
The attendance sheet of a regular barangay meeting was attached to
Lepanto's drilling application as proof of the people's consent.  But
Lepanto's application was not even discussed during the said barangay
meeting.

This has become a trick employed by mining companies to shortcut the
process of getting the community's "prior and informed consent" for
their operations.  They work to outmanuever the people's opposition.
Mining companies first used this trick in 1990 when then DENR-CAR
Regional Executive Director Horacio Ramos intervened in a dispute
between the Itogon people and Benguet Corporation's Grand Antamok Open
Pit Mining Project. 

          The Ruthlessness of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995

Deception as a tool by mining companies is complemented with
ruthlessness under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The people's
experiences attest to this.

On August 23, 1995, about 300 military men swooped down and arrested
about 300 community people who barricaded the Camote Vein. The vein is
a part of the open pit mining project of Benguet Corporation in
Itogon. Bulldozers freely entered and left the site. The mass arrest
successfully removed all obstruction in the continuation of the big
corporation's project. To effectively hold the area, it was fenced-off
and regularly guarded by military men on a 3-shift basis.

History repeated itself in Tabbac, Bulalacao, Mankayan when 8 people
were charged with civil and criminal cases and ordered arrested. On
November 16, while people were negotiating and having a dialogue with
the mining company, a Senior mining company official Rambo-style led
security guards in securing the area against the community people.
They then set-up the company's drilling equipment. 

Since then, the rig was guarded by 2-shifts of security guards in well
entrenched and fortified positions.  Moreover, a team of Army Special
Forces assisted by 78 para-military men of the CAFGU patrol the area
to maintain "peace and order".

If it not for the Easement Right provision of the Philippine Mining
Act of 1995, these  human rights violations would not happen. Such
provision of the law gave mining companies a powerful  tool  to harass
and intimidate people.

                  The people's resolve to stand united

The people are undaunted. The experiences of the people in mining
communities of Itogon and Mankayan only serve to unite the people
against an anti-people, pro-capitalist mining policy.    

As a result of the liberalization of the mining industry, facilitated
by the passage of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, mining
applications by mining companies will comprise 76% of the total land
area of the Cordillera. 

What the people of Itogon and Mankayan are experiencing now will be
duplicated all over the Cordillera region in every stage of their
operation - from exploration work, to drilling and to actual ore
extraction.  Companies will always use deception, intimidation, 
and harassment in order to exploit the mineral resources
of the region. At stake here are the  basic rights of the people to
the land as Filipinos and as indigenous peoples.  Their land is their
life. 

The opposition of the people will not only be directed against the
owners of Lepanto, Philex and Benguet Corporation but also against
Newmont Gold Mining of the US and Newcrest of Australia,  whose
combined  mineral applications comprise about 50% of the region's land
area,  and all other mining applications that would adversely affect
the people... their land... their life... their livelihood.  

We also hold answerable the reactionary state that continues to be
subservient to foreign monopoly capitalist interests. It continues to
tow the globalization scheme of imperialist countries to the detriment
of the Filipino people and in particular the Cordillera indigenous
peoples. 

What the people of Mankayan are doing is a fine example of resistance. 
At the very start of the mining company's plan in the area
- that is during the exploration stage - people should  already 
resist and defend their right to live, their right to the nation's 
resources and their right as a people.

The Cordillera people should stop the exploitation of their mineral
resources that will mainly  benefit foreign capitalists. The mineral
resources should be preserved and used wisely for the benefit the
Cordillera people and the Filipino people.

             Stop the drilling operation of Lepanto Mines!
    Stop the impending approval of FTAA's of Newmont and Newcrest!
     Uphold the Rights of Indigenous Peoples over their Resources!
                                    

                       Cordillera Peoples Alliance
                             February 11, 1999