Large-scale mining threatens Nueva Vizcaya IPs' food security
The food security of the indigenous peoples of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya is
threatened by the large-scale mining operations of OceanaGold
Philippines, Inc. (OGPI) and Oxiana-RoyalCo. At the same time, the FPIC
process under the IPRA law brings disunity among the IPs residing in
the affected areas.
Different organizations like the Philippine Network for the Environment
(PNE)-Kalikasan and Katinnulong Daguiti Umili iti Amianan
(RDC-KADUAMI), a member of the EED-Task Force for IP Rights
(EED-TFIP), participated in a congressional hearing on the matter with
partner Save the Valley Environmental Alliance and local people's
organizations. The House Committee on National Cultural Communities
conducted two on-site hearings and investigations on June 7-8, 2008 in
Brgy. Kakidugen and Brgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya. The said
barangays are operation sites of Oxiana-Royalco and OceanaGold,
respectively.
Indigenous peoples expressed their concern about the adverse impacts of
these mining operations on the environment and sources of livelihood
and subsistence.
“How do these mining operations address the food crisis of the people?
We have been displaced from our ancestral lands in Ifugao and Benguet
due to mining operations yet we are still facing the same problem here.
We have witnessed the destructive impacts that these mining operations
brought to the environment and we cannot allow this to happen again
here. The people in these areas already have a sustainable source of
livelihood than what these mining companies claim to provide upon entry
of these operations,” said Lucas Buay of Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response
for Ecological Development (KIRED).
The municipality of Kasibu has a wide forest area. About 30% of the
total land area is forest land. It is proven that almost all crops
except mango can grow in this area.The primary agricultural products of
the province are still rice and corn, but this gateway to the Cagayan
Valley is envisioned as the regional center for fruit and vegetable
production and spice-based industries. “We cannot let the entry of
these mining companies destroy our lands. Kasibu is considered the
citrus capital of the country, with an annual output of about 10
million kilograms of oranges from an estimated 20,000 hectares of
citrus plantations. The citrus farmers stand by their position that
agriculture is still the sustainable development for the people as our
independent study on the success of citrus industry here would show. We
do not want mining here,” Alfonso Namuhje II of the Mallabing Tribal
Development Association (MTDP) said.
About forty percent of Nueva Vizcaya's population of 366,962 (based on
the 2000 census) is composed of indigenous peoples including the
Bugkalots, Ifugaos, Ibalois, Gaddangs, Isinais, Ikalahans, and
Ilongots. The Bugkalots have entered into a peace covenant through
blood compact in the 1950s with other IP groups who migrated to Nueva
Vizcaya after they had been driven away from their ancestral lands. The
areas stated in the mining permit granted to the mining companies are
within an ancestral land the Bugkalots included in their application
for a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC) from the National
Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
“We were not consulted by the NCIP during the process of securing the
FPIC certificate because we are only migrant IPs in the areas and we
are not holders of CADC. But there was no such thing in the provisions
of the IPRA law that migrant IPs could not be consulted, especially
that we have been here for three decades now,” Fidel Opay of the Lower
Muta Valley Farmers’ Federation (LMVFF) explained.
FPIC process is being also questioned based on controversies involving
bribery and deception.“ Our peace pact with the Bugkalot tribe is also
threatened to be negated because of this conflict that arises due to
these controversies,” Opay added.
Mayor Romeo Tayaban of Kasibu, a resource speaker during the hearing,
said, “mining operations claim that they will bring development to the
people in Kasibu. But what kind of development is this if our people
are disunited? We were once a peaceful community but these issues have
divided us because of these operations.”
Reference
Ms. Mae Soledad
Research, Campaigns & Advocacy Coordinator
email: kaduami@yahoo.com; breyine@yahoo.com
phone: 0929 848-2401/ (074)446-2401