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Kalinga peasants learn from Benguet’s mined out areas

BAGUIO CITY (Oct. 20) — “Madi gayam ti epekto ti minas kadagiti umili nga agindeg iti pagminasan,” (We found that the effects of mining to communities near its operations are adverse) concluded a group of over 20 peasants from the communities threatened by the impending mining operations of Wolfland Resources in Kalinga after they visited mined-out communities in Mankayan and Itogon, Benguet from October 16 to18.

The visiting peasants represented barangays Pakawit, Asibanglan, Bonnong, Limos, Baay, and Apatan, all in Pinukpuk and barangays Lucog, Bagumbayan, and Bantay in Tabuk.

Representatives from the Guilayon sub tribe, who were also invited, were not able to participate in the three-day exposure program organized by APIT TAKO (Alyansa Dagiti Pesante iti Taeng Kordilyera). The Guilayon occupy three barangays in Tabuk: Nambucayan, Magnao, and Guilayon. Elders of this sub tribe reportedly opened 461 hectares of their land Wolfland’s mining exploration.

On the said dates, the exposurees were divided into four smaller groups and went to barangays Ucab, Gumatdang, Loacan and Ampucao, in Itogon, and to Guinawang and Colalo in Mankayan with a side trip to Cervantes in Ilocos Sur.

The exposure program enlightened the participants on the long term effects of large corporate mining and changed the perspectives of some of them. They resolved to disseminate the information they got from the people of mine-out areas in Mankayan and Itogon.

Host communities

Itogon and Mankayan are two minerally-endowed Benguet towns in the southern and northern parts of the province respectively. Small-scale mining in these towns has sustained generations of native gold-panners and lode-miners for years.

At the turn of the 20th century, American prospectors opened the first corporate mines, now known as Benguet Corporation (BC). Other big mines which operated in Itogon include Itogon-Suyoc Mines, Kelly Mines, Atok Big Wedge, the Baguio Gold Operations, and the Philex Mining Corporation (Philex) at the boundary with Tuba town. Philex claims to be the only gainful mine site since five years ago. BC now diversified its operations to include a venture in bulk water supply.

Mankayan’s Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (Lepanto) on the other hand, opened in 1936. It started operating the Victoria Gold Project in 1995 and is now working on the Teresa Ore.

Many communities in these towns now have to live with the ill effects brought about by mining operations.

Dev’t package for the Guilayon

“Saan gayam a mabalin a minasenda ti Guilayon ta maapektaran met laeng ti il-ili iti batogna ken dagiti akinbabana,” (We realized that we should not allow them to mine Guilayon because nearby downstream communities will also be affected) a woman from Tabuk emphatically said. She relates how the open pit operations in Antamok depleted the water sources of surrounding Ucab, Loacan and Poblacion communities in Itogon.

The visitors also noted the dismal state of Itogon roads after the BC mines closed.

Wolfland reportedly promised the Guilayon that it will improve their roads, give them decent jobs and send their children to school for free. This development package reportedly convinced some of the elders into signing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in June this year.

The Kalinga peasants, however, saw no development in Mankayan and Itogon. The roads are in a very bad state, without maintenance from the mining companies which are using it. Infrastructures such as schools and clinics, the peasants say, are now being maintained by the government, contrary to the mining companies’ commitment.

They also saw the scarcity of water for domestic and agricultural use in both towns. They were told that there used to be rice fields in these towns until the mines either took the water for the operations or caused the lowering of water tables, or both.

“Saan gayam nga agpayso a mangiyeg ti development ti minas. Kakaasi dagiti tattao iti kaminasan a mangsagrap ti rigat. Inyunay-unay ko a sinaludsod ti kasasaad ti danumda. Ket talaga met nga isu ti nangnangruna a naawan isunga adayo ti pagapuan ti danumda itatta,” (It is not true that the mines will bring forth development. It is the people who now bear the brunt, poor as they are. I prioritized asking them the situation of their water sources. Indeed it was water which was gone that people now get water from far sources) an unnamed woman from Tabuk who visited Camp Lolita professed.

The Kalinga folk who visited in Mankayan witnessed how people recalled with grief the sinking of Colalo which claimed the life of a person, including a school building. They also witnessed cracks on the ground in other parts of Mankayan.

Tales of siltation of farms and rivers, poisoning and death of animals due to tailings ponds gave the Kalinga peasants enough insights on environmental degradation due to corporate mining.

Most of the host families live with small scale mining coupled with small agricultural production in the surface of the mountains. The depletion of water sources has affected these livelihood sources but small scale miners have devised a way to harness rain water and recycle ball mill water.

Opposing mining operations

Camp Lolita at the boundary of barangays Virac and Ampucao in Itogon was the site of a proposed XYZ open pit mines of the Benguet Corporation (BC) in the 1990s. People in Camp Lolita barricaded the site for several months and succeeded in opposing the operations. Bigger barricades resumed in 2002 and 2003 when BC invited contract miners to mine the remaining ore in its L-1500 in Acupan which affected at least 15 sitios in two Itogon barangays

“No saanda nga inaramid didiay, awan koma ti nadanon mi a tattao ken bantay iti Camp Lolita,” (If they didn’t barricade, we couldn’t have met them, nor see the mountain at Camp Lolita), Clarke Ford Sacki of Bantay, Tabuk attested.

The barricades in Camp Lolita and Acupan, more than a decade apart, were a symbol of a united opposition of Itogon communities to almost 100 years of BC mining operations in Benguet. This and other stories of the Itogon and Mankayan people’s struggles against corporate mining inspired the visiting Kalinga peasants.

People in the host communities told them that armed elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) sided with the mining companies during these mass actions. Itogon folk relayed how they collectively faced cases filed against them by the mining companies in court. Other forms of human rights violations such as mass arrests, coercion and bribery, the hosts told them, did not quell the opposition to mining operations by large companies.

With these lessons, the exposurees saw the need to foster tighter unity with other communities including those who have allegedly consented to Wolfland’s exploration activities to protect resources in the affected Guilayon territory.

Changed perspectives

Sixty-year old Emilio Dusog of Pakawit, Pinukpuk revealed that before the trip to Benguet he wanted Wolfland to go ahead with the exploration so that he could get a well-paying job at the mine site. But when he saw what large-scale mining has done to Mankayan and its people, he changed his mind.

“Nakitak ti Mankayan idi. Nabaknang dagiti tao, kas dagiti tao iti Magnao, Guilayon ken Mambucayan gaputa nairana nga adda’t minas. Ngem itatta, nagsikig dagiti balbalayda, narba ti bantay, awan ti danum kadagiti taltalon,” (I’ve seen Mankayan before. The people were rich like those in Magnao, Guilayon and Nambucayan because they had the mines. But now, their houses are leaning, mountains are sinking, and there is no water for the rice fields) he elaborated what he saw during his short visit.

Brgy. Capt. Villamor Sannadan, of Lucog, Tabuk, said he was already planning to put up a satellite market in his yard as an auxiliary income source when the mines would push through in the Guilayon territory. But his experience with the people of Mankayan and Itogon changed his plans. He was quite depressed recalling to have heard a Magnao elder beg that no one should oppose when the mines are set up in Magnao.

“Masapol nga aksyonan tayo, tapno adda ti serbina,” (We should act on it, so that it does not go to waste), the exposurees seem to have decided on as they drew up plans for a massive information dissemination campaign that will start educating and organizing Kalinga communities affected by the Wolfland exploration. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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