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A GROUP
of tribesmen opposed to mining on Thursday reiterated
its call to scrap the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.
Members
of the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng
Pilipinas (KAMP) stormed Malacañang on Thursday to
demand the immediate withdrawal of mining operations in
their ancestral lands.
The
group, in particular, wants the Philippine Mining
Development Corp. (PMDC) to resolve the adverse effect
of mining to indigenous communities, particularly in
Southern Tagalog and
Central Luzon.
KAMP
noted that 18 of the 24 priority mining projects of the
administration are located in tribal areas: ten in
Mindanao, six in Cordillera and
Northern Luzon, and one each in
Palawan
and Mindoro Islands.
The
group also criticized President Arroyo’s implementation
of the Human Security Act of 2007, saying that “the
mining and antiterrorism laws, undeniably to be carried
out in tandem, will result in “legalized political
repression, massive land grabbing, and even the killing
of people” who oppose Arroyo’s mining agenda.”
Himpad
Mangumalas, KAMP spokesman, explained that the
militarization of indigenous communities plays a vital
role in the government’s agenda for revitalizing the
mining industry.
“By
deploying troops and setting up military detachments,
the government assures transnational and multinational
mining corporations that our communities are cleared off
of any resistance,” he said.
“The
Human Security Act bestows on President Arroyo and her
allies the mandate to tag as ‘economic terrorists’
anyone who gets in their way and therefore fall prey to
State persecution,” he added.
The
indigenous leader also described the President’s move to
include PMDC under her office and the appointment of her
brother-in-law, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Rep.
Ignacio Arroyo of Negros Occidental, as chairman of the
House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural
Resources, as “troubling because it greatly diminishes
all measures for transparency,” and that “it may have
even been a well-thought move to further weaken the
social and environmental safeguards provided by the
Constitution, and later on allows for a ‘one-stop shop’
processing in the applications of mining giants.”
“We
remind the President that this makes her even more
accountable to victims of mining disasters and of
mining-related human-rights violations, including
economic dislocation, eviction from ancestral
territories and the virtual ‘ethnocide’ of tribal
communities,” he said.
Mangumalas cited the recently reported collapse of TVI-Resource
Development Philippines’ mine tailings pond in Siocon,
Zamboanga del Norte in Mindanao. The Canadian-owned
mining company, which operates in
Mount Canatuan,
a sacred site of the Subanens, denied that its tailings
pond had collapsed. However, residents are wary that the
wall of the pond might give way during heavy rains.
In
Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya in Northern Luzon, three Bugkalot
and Ifugao village chiefs are reportedly facing charges
when Australian-owned Oxiana Philippines Inc. filed a
case against 22 men, the three tribesmen included, who
allegedly put up a barricade to prevent the entry of the
mining company in their community. The town mayor asked
higher government officials and the mining giant to
“respect the people’s will.”
The
group also challenged recently proclaimed PMDC chief
Heherson Alvarez to “take a bold and decisive stand
whenever tribesmen’s rights are at stake,” but also
reminded him that “there is a fine line between genuine
consultation and deception.”
Mangumalas was pertaining to the consultation mechanisms
offered by the Indigenous People’s Rights Act and one of
its major provisions, the free, prior and informed
consent, which has been “reengineered to easily
accommodate demands of the mining sector.”
“Alvarez
may want to study and seriously implement the
recommendations of the United Nations Special Rapporteur
on the Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, that
lists guidelines on how to respect the rights of
tribesmen,” Mangumalas said. |
