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Contested mine operations in Tuba, Benguet persist

Water table endangered - Camp 6 residents

TUBA, Benguet (Dec. 23) — Despite community disapproval in February this year, diamond drilling operations continue at a mine site recently approved as a mineral production sharing venture by the Philex Mining Corporation and Anglo-American Exploration.The drillings started two months ago.

Residents claim that two drilling sites are in progress in an area called “Mexico”. This mining claim is reportedly owned by the Balajadias of Baguio City. The extent of the operations worries residents due to fear that the drillings will disturb the water sources of the community.

In an interview, miner Fernando Akisio, president of Purok Laaw Neighborhood Organization (PLANO) raised questions on the role of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in such circumstances.

“Saan ko a maawatan nu apay a naituloy ti eksplorasyon malpas a minadi dagiti umili ti FPIC (Free, prior and informed consent). Lima laeng ti nangkayat ti operasyon kadakami,” (I still cannot understand why the exploration pushed through after we have rejected the FPIC, which only five residents approved in the first place), he said.

The NCIP personnel earlier told the community in February this year that if the FPIC process failed the company, no operations would take place.

“Why did they conduct all those consultations with us if our collective decision was ignored in the end?” he asks. Community-acknowledged elders and leaders represented the residents in most of the consultations, which peaked in a referendum in February.

To his estimates, the drilling is only 150 meters away from the spring which serves as a community resource where most resident’s get their domestic water. The barangay council earlier told NORDIS that the operations are over a kilometer away from the water source.

For Dante Sinong, president of the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) at the Camp 6 Elementary School and president of the Purok Power Hilltop Neighborhood Organization (PPHNO), the ongoing drillings has to do with the 10 million jobs promised by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Pangalaan na ngay ti trabaho no saan nga iti mining?” Sinong asks. He said government agencies are aggressive to implement the 10-point agenda even if mining operations do not enjoy community approval.

Some women in the community are worried that they have to evacuate soon, for fear of disasters that massive ground movement can cause later.

Hard to leave

Camp 6 is a built-up area at the foot of Mount Pula along the Kennon Road. Most residents here are families of mine workers of the defunct Benguet Exploration (B-Ex).

When the mines closed in 1990, most of them stayed and constructed makeshift dwellings which later developed into permanent homes. The community is now home to some 6,000 people from different Cordillera tribes and provinces and some lowland towns.

Rose Doringo, 45, from Baler, Aurora, a knitter and a woman leader said it is hard for them to leave the community. Permanent residences are hard to leave behind, she said. While some of them are at the verge of giving up hope, Doringo said the community will surely assert its existence even if some politicians do not give much premium on their strength.

A Kalinga native recalls how the people back home defended the Chico River Valley from the contractors and government agencies involved in the Chico Dam Project during the martial law era.

“Nu ti biag ti tattao ti nakataya, aggaraw dagita. Imbag dagiti lallakay ta apan dan, ngem kasano ngay ti sumaruno?” (If people’s lives are at stake, they will act on it. Old people will soon leave, but how about the next generation?), he emphasized. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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