Kalinga's
Buaya tribe rescinds earlier endorsement and is now set to oppose
CEXCI exploration permit application
Kalinga’s
Buaya tribe withdrew its decision allowing the Cordillera Exploration
Co., Inc. (CEXCI) to explore 8,000 hectares covering Barangay Tawang
in Balbalan; and Calafug, Cupiz, Puguin and a portion of Karikitan
in Conner, Apayao. The CEXCI filed for a two-year renewable Exploration
Permit Application (EXPA) with the office of the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources - Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB).
Starting April of this
year, the offices of NCIP, MGB, and CEXCI have conducted three community
consultations with the Buaya tribe. A Consensus Building Process
has happened during a consultation with the tribe on May 8, 2005
wherein the tribe expressed consent to the proposed exploration
of CEXCI to the place. However, the MGB and CEXCI were not present
at that time. Thus, on June 5, the NCIP-Kalinga, MGB-Tuguegarao
and CEXCI conducted another consultation with the tribe on what
is to be contained in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which is to
be drafted by NCIP-Kalinga.
In the four affected
barangays of Conner, Apayao, officials from the NCIP, MGB and CEXCI
have also conducted series of consultations starting April of this
year. In Barangay Karikitan, a referendum was held and the majority
vote was NO. Because of this, CEXCI and NCIP agreed to excise Barangay
Karikitan from the exploration area of the application.
In a meeting held in
Brgy. Tawang, Balbalan, Kalinga, Buaya’s tribal leaders led
a discussion on the exploration application of CEXCI to the area
and its possible impacts to the community. As result, the tribe
decided to rescind earlier decision and make a petition paper against
the mining exploration application of CEXCI. This was signed by
191 members of the Buaya tribe and residents of Barangay Tawang,
Balbalan, Kalinga.
In the petition, the
tribe said that that the consultations facilitated by NCIP-Kalinga
and MGB-Tuguegarao were not informative enough with regard basic
information on mining exploration processes, its effects to the
environment and the socio-cultural as well as political systems
of the place. CEXCI has allegedly started conducting initial mining
activities in Laocon, Balbalan. With this, the Buaya tribe accused
them of illegal intrusion.
It was also stated that
the NCIP, MGB, and CEXCI denied that the exploration process is
the actual means of determining the depth and quality of mineral
ores so to estimate the projected costs of ore extraction. In addition,
the P200,000 amount which CEXCI promised to provide every barangay
of the Buaya tribe as Community Development Assistance (CDA) is
not sufficient to address what was earlier agreed upon by both parties
such as construction and rehabilitation of roads, construction of
school buildings, scholarship grants for four-year degree courses,
micro hydro project, and rehabilitation of the exploration area.
Other reasons for the
petition were based on what the communities perceive as the effects
of mining which they have learned from the experiences of mining
areas in the Philippines, such as massive environmental degradation,
poisoning of irrigation sources such as rivers, water shortage due
to logging and disturbance of underground water source, destruction
of ginubat (forests), and disappearance of animals found in the
forests such as pingao or birds that produce exotic nests which
serve as one of their sources of living.
As of January 31, 2005,
CEXCI has applied for another Exploration Permit Application (EXPA)
covering 2,592 hectares in Mountain Province and Ifugao and one
Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) covering 77,549
hectares in Benguet, Abra, Mountain Province, and part of Ilocos.
CEXCI is just one of the many mining corporations that applied for
EXPA and FTAA in the Cordillera region.
The Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) opposes the entry of such
large mining corporations in the Cordillera because it is a direct
assault and violation of the collective rights to ancestral land
and self-determination. Likewise, its impacts to the environment
as well as to the economy (livelihood sources), culture, and society
of the Igorot people are highly intolerable. Much have been seen
and experienced by the Cordillera people through the years of mining
operations of different mining companies in the region especially
in Benguet. The CPA calls for a stop to the exploitation of Cordillera
land and resources. # Sarah Dekdeken/PIC-CPA, September
17, 2005
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