Mankayan IPs want NCIP officer out

3 MIN READ

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The indigenous peoples of Mankayan or the Teeng (natives) di Mankayan petitioned National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Chairperson Brigida Zenaida H. Pawid for the immediate relief of NCIP-Benguet legal officer Atty. Severino Lumiqued for having manifested partiality towards Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) and Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc. (FSGRI) during the negotiations for the conversion of Lepanto Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) 001 and 151 to a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA).

The residents also petitioned the national office of the NCIP to declare the community consultative assembly (CCA) held on October 30, 2012 in the municipal gym of Poblacion, Mankayan, Benguet facilitated by the NCIP’s Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) team null and void.

According to the petition, the NCIP team did not even note the consensus of the different communities of Mankayan during the barangay level consultations where they expressed their reservations to the conversion, and their position against any mining operations and expansions within their areas.

They said the NCIP people failed to document, register and validate the earlier barangay consensus on the October 30 FPIC community consultative assembly (CCA).

The residents said that the team excluded Barangays Balili and Bedbed not only from the CCA but from the whole process of the FPIC without providing satisfactory explanation.

They added that Balili and Bedbed are immediately adjacent to Madaymen which is the center of the intended FSGRI operations and therefor are also directly affected. They questioned the inclusion of Barangays Paco and Cabiten that are situated some distance away from Madaymen. They added that both barangays are even outside the 383 hectares covered in the FTAA conversion.

The petition stated that the NCIP team allowed Lepanto and Gold Fields to bring their workers’ families to the CCA. “A few of the workers were even able to dominate the discussion in as much as Atty. Lumiqued frequently surrendered the floor to them. Who where they to decide on the application of Lepanto-Gold Fields when they were beholden to this partnership for their employment?” the statement read.

The residents added that most of the workers were not natives of Mankayan as they came from different provinces of the Cordillera Region and other parts of the country for employment.

“As enshrined in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) and the customary laws of IPS, the right to determine the future of a place belongs only to the IPs of the place-in this case, we Teeng di Mankayan. After all, it is the IP who identify the place, who bear the responsibility for the place, and who will be held accountable by the future generations of their people/s for whatever happens to the place,” stated the petition.

The petitioners also cited that the NCIP team did not pay attention to the Mankayan elders even if many of them tried to participate especially those from the Mankayan Ancestral Domain Indigenous People’s Organization (MADIPO). An organization of Mankayan IPs where the NCIP even helped in its formation.

According to the petition, the residents raised all the issues prior to the consultation but instead of addressing them, Atty Lumiqued just went on to discuss mainly with the mineworkers how the FPIC would be determined whether through consensus building or voting; by secret ballot; Lumiqued also entertained the idea of “tinayagan” (raising of hands) and tinakdegan ( by standing-up) and whether among registered voters, elders or the Te-eng only.

The petition continued that when Lumiqued recognized only the majority choice made by overwhelming numbers of mineworkers and their families and ignored the earlier issues and resolutions, the people (teeng) walked-out of the consultation.

Nordis called Lumiqued’s office for an interview but, through a clerk who answered the phone, he begged off and requested for a later appointment. # nordis.net