The Koalisyon Ng Katutubo at Samahan Ng Pilipinas (KASAPI) Inc.  supports  the re-filing of the [Minerals management bill or Minerals Act Bill], a milestone in the effort to reverse the unmitigated extraction of resources and continued destruction of the environment.

The Bill seeks to “Regulate The Rational Exploration, Development and Utilization of Mineral Resources and To Ensure the Equitable sharing of Benefits for the State, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities and for other Purposes”

This is a product of unprecedented cooperation and analysis of different individuals, organizations and communities affected by mining in the Philippines and taking into consideration the decades-long issues and concerns raised by indigenous peoples. We assert our conviction that indigenous peoples can’t go through yet another decade of plunder of our country’s remaining forests, the bulk of which mostly are ancestral domains. Indigenous peoples have forged strong consensus to protect ancestral lands and domains.

Significantly, the bill prohibits the use of paramilitary forces or to contract the services of the military for the private use of  mining corporations.

It also prohibits against direct support by the State to the private security of mining corporations.
This is only proper. The government has not only been giving away lands and resources to the market in utter failure to protect the greater people’s interest. It implements a national strategy of deploying military detachments in indigenous peoples’ territories. The purpose of these military detachments, which are manned by paramilitary forces under the command of regular army officers, is to quell legitimate dissent. This practice of embedding paramilitary forces within or in proximity to indigenous communities are common in areas targeted for mineral resource extraction.  In the Cordillera for instance, the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) supported the creation of military-led Task Force Lepanto ostensibly to ensure that legitimate dissent by mining-affected communities are branded as insurgents.

Not only are the impacts of “military bases” in mining sites known locally. They are also known internationally as ‘a grave human rights problem’. In 2007, UN Special Rapporteur Rodolfo   Stavenhagen witnessed first-hand the degree of influence which mining companies exert over the military and how the military and paramilitary units become the mining company’s security forces. In earlier visits he made in mining sites, he pointed the direct link between militarization  of indigenous communities and development aggression, noting that:
‘Indigenous resistance and protest are frequently countered by military force involving numerous human rights abuses, such as arbitrary detention, persecution, killings of community representatives, coercion, torture, demolition of houses, destruction of property, rape, and forced recruitment by the armed forces, the police or the so-called paramilitaries, such as Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs).’
That is the common Government response when Indigenous Peoples’ concept of development  comes into conflict with predefined model of national development. Rather than respect our  rights, obey and honor State laws including the principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent  (FPIC), the Government instead uses military intimidation as a means to suppress legitimate  community dissent against the pollution of rivers and destruction of their livelihood. In short,  government is making itself the biggest recruiter of insurgency.

Furthermore, the bill also seeks to protect and promote the right to health of the people.

Health impacts of mining operations are a major concern of indigenous communities. An Environmental Investigatory Mission (EIM) conducted by the Save the Abra River Movement (STARM) including health professionals and the University of the Philippines academics identified major adverse effects of large-scale mining on human and animal health.

The study found that the inhabitants of Paalaban and Batbato in Mankayan, a mining site of Lepanto Mining:

“are exposed regularly to mining waste waters. Coughing (48.5 percent), irritation of the nasal membrane (31.6 percent), skin irritations like rashes, itchiness or cauterization (31.6 percent), irritation of the eyes (16.5 percent) and vomiting (10.5 percent) are the symptoms most often diagnosed resulting from contact with the waste waters. Randomly obtained blood samples have shown that these people have higher concentrations of cyanide, lead, and copper in comparison to people without contact to mining waste waters…Workers’ occupational health and safety is also a grave concern”

The study also found that there was a significant loss of biodiversity including aquatic, plant and bird life. Evidence of elevated heavy metals content in water, associated with acid mine drainage (AMD), was found in waters and soil downstream from the mining operations. Livelihoods were impacted as a result of decreased fishery and agricultural yields.

Despite these findings, no Government sponsored studies have been conducted to determine the potential health impacts of mining projects.

Mining has not brought development to indigenous communities. Rather, mining affected communities have experienced dislocation from their territories, suffered harassment and abuse, and the degradation of their ecosystems. In Palawan, the Palaw’an tribe has not benefited from over thirty years of nickel mining on the island, which has seen millions of tons of nickel ore shipped to Japan and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Instead, promises made to the tribe have not been kept and they continue to bear the impacts of the destruction of their physical environment.

Even as we support the chairman of the House Committee on National Cultural Communities, the Hon. Congressman Teddy Baguilat’s call for a moratorium on large-scale mining, we call on the government to exclude indigenous people’s ancestral domains and its sacred sites from mining, revamp that tottering-bumbling agency called National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), require mining companies to respect FPIC and rehabilitate mined out areas pending the passage of an  minerals management bill.

SGD.
Giovanni B. Reyes
Secretary-General