[IPSM] Statement of Resistance to mining from tribal peoples in teh Philippines

[antoine libert]

A Press Statement from the spokesperson of the Cordillera Peoples' 
Democratic Front  an allied member of the National Democratic Front

Arroyo, Supreme Court guilty of high treason
March 11, 2005

The Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front (CPDF) accuses and condemns the 
Arroyo regime and the Supreme Court justices for  high treason and 
subverting  the national interest by declaring the 1995 Mining  Act as 
constitutional in favor of foreign mining corporations. The justices  should 
further be
investigated and prosecuted for reversing their  earlier decision on the  
Mining Act in exchange for $50 million they  allegedly received as bribe 
from  the slush fund of big foreign oil and mining
corporations.
The government and the mining corporations claim  that the revolutionary 
mass movement and the people are against development  because they oppose 
destructive mining. Such twisted logic is meant to obscure the issue. What  
the revolutionary mass movement and the people oppose is plunder disguised 
as development. The issue is for whose development and benefit are these
mining corporations?

The Arroyo regime claims that corporate mining will  generate employment for 
  the people and income for the government. Modern large-scale mining, 
however, is highly mechanized and employs a  relatively small number of  
workers who will be paid with measly wages, in contrast with the
multi-million superprofits the foreign capitalists will rake in. The number  
of peasants who will lose their land and livelihood  from corporate mining  
will be far greater than the number of workers that
will be employed. The  only "income" that the government will get will 
mostly be bribes and kickbacks. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the foreign  
mining corporations will  enjoy 100% foreign equity, 100% repatriation of  
profits, numerous tax exemptions and holidays, and many other benefits.  The 
Mining Act grants big capitalists not only mining rights, but also timber 
rights, water rights,  and "easement rights" the latter meaning the right  
to ease out the people  from the land covered by mining applications.

The Arroyo regime's claim of recognizing ancestral land rights and 
protecting the environment is also mere propaganda.  Gloria Arroyo laid bare 
the national patrimony to be raped by foreigners when she signed Executive 
Order 270 known as the National Policy Agenda on Revitalizing Mining in the
Philippines. She has also issued another executive  order instructing the 
DENR to review all ancestral land certificates issued by the NCIP. This 
means that the DENR is empowered to override or
invalidate ancestral land  claims and titles. Although the mining 
corporations  are required to get the
"free and prior informed consent" of the people before they are allowed to 
operate, they can easily bypass or circumvent this  through bribery, 
intimidation, deception, and divide-and-rule tactics, with the active help 
of the government, the military, and reformist NGOs.

The Arroyo regime is doing nothing to stop the pollution caused by the 
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company. Lepanto uses bulk mining method which  
has caused erosion, sinking areas, and the disappearance of water sources in 
Mankayan. The people living near Lepanto's exhaust pipe also complain of  
respiratory diseases, nausea, and vomiting. Lepanto expels a daily average 
of 1,500 tons of mining waste containing cyanide  which is washed away into 
the Abra river during the rainy season. This has been happening for more 
than 60 years now, affecting 100,000 people living  along the Abra River in 
19 municipalities and four provinces. Even now, Lepanto, through the Chamber 
of Mines, is trying to bribe the Mining and  Geosciences Bureau to raise the 
acceptable limits for cyanide that the mines can expel into the environment.

The people along the Abra River attest that mine  silt has ruined many of  
their farms and has astically reduced rice  production and fish population.  
This has been confirmed by doctors, agriculturists,
scientists and other professionals from the Save the Abra River Movement 
(STARM) who have
conducted several investigative missions. They also  found out a high 
incidence of respiratory diseases among the Lepanto miners who are not  
provided with protective masks.

Despite opposition by the people, Lepanto is  hell-bent on expanding its 
operations in Buguias, Bainit, and Tadian, while Philex in joint venture 
with Anglo-American Exploration is expanding in
Tuba. The MGB and NCIP have allowed Wolfland Resources Inc., a Swedish 
mining company, to conduct mining explorations on 499 hectares of ancestral 
lands of the Guilayon tribe in Magnao, Kalinga without the free and prior 
informed  consent of the people in the surrounding areas. Various foreign 
corporations have already filed mining applications on 446,577 hectares or 
almost  one-fourth of the entire Cordillera. The Arroyo regime has already 
approved  operations on 13,167  hectares, and is rushing the approval of 
more.

The 1% of gross income from corporate mining which is supposed to go to the 
local government is actually rechanneled and packaged by the mining firms as 
community development projects which they dole out for propaganda effect. 
Furthermore, the P256 million share of Benguet from the taxes paid by 
Lepanto and Philex since 1992 has yet to be paid.  Until today, the 
Cordillera provinces rank among the most neglected provinces in the country 
despite their huge contribution to the national
wealth.

The peoples of the Cordillera will never willingly surrender their ancestral 
domain for such kind of "development" that violates their right to 
self-determination, deprives them of their land and life, and poisons and  
devastates the environment, all for the benefit and enrichment of the few  
who are in power and their foreign masters. Thus, the Arroyo regime and 
mining corporations are aggressively implementing a "social acceptability 
campaign" - a fancy name for propaganda to cover up the destructive effects 
of corporate mining, portray it as "modern, people-friendly, and 
environmentally safe" and deceive the people into accepting this. Failing 
this, the government will resort to militarization and brute force, as it is 
  already doing in Mankayan and many other areas.

The only winners in the Arroyo regime's  "development policy" are the 
imperialists, local comprador capitalists, and corrupt government officials, 
  while the losers will be the Filipino people.

Therefore, the CPDF calls on the peoples of the Cordillera to prepare to  
wage fetad the people's tradition of war mobilization against the coming 
assault of destructive foreign mining corporations
and for the defense of  the ancestral homeland and life. Fetad shall unify 
the strength of each
individual, each sector, and each community into an  invincible force. The 
Cordillera peasants and workers who constitute the majority of the people 
should lead in the struggle, using all means armed
and unarmed, legal and illegal, open and underground. The tribal elders and 
leaders should lead in
casting aside petty tribal conflicts and in forging inter-tribal unity  
against the common enemy. Instead of waging tribal war, the armed tribal 
warriors throughout the Cordillera can constitute themselves as community 
self-defense units. They can help by preventing the entry and by driving 
away mining surveyors and confiscating their  equipment. The professionals 
and educated sector can help in articulating and  projecting the people's 
struggle. Traitors who are conniving with the Arroyo
regime and mining  corporations must be exposed and condemned.

Fetad is the Cordillera peoples' response to mining aggression. It is their 
contribution to the national struggle to overthrow the corrupt self-serving 
system ruled by a few local oppressive and
exploitative classes in  collaboration with their imperialist masters.  
Genuine national  industrialization, including sustainable mining, can only 
be achieved by overthrowing this centuries-old system and
establishing a new system which truly represents and serves the majority of 
the people, especially the
masses. Only then will the mining industry be truly owned, controlled, 
managed, and be of service to the Filipino people.  Armed struggle, 
complemented by legal and other forms of struggle, is the correct path to  
national freedom, democracy, and genuine  development.

Simon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan
Spokesperson, CPDF

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