BAGUIO CITY – At least six elders of the mining town of Mankayan in Benguet reaffirmed the legitimacy of a series of consultations with the indigenous peoples in the community, maintaining that the Crescent Mining and Development Corp. (CMDC) had complied with the regulations required by the government under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).
To recall, the CMDC as a mere contractor has been through a long drawn process of pursuing approval of its application for its Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) for almost three decades now, by complying with the rules needed in the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the IPRA.
Atty. Materno Luspian, council elder and former mayor who was assigned as spokesperson of the council of elders who were all validated by an assembly of the IPs of the Ancestral Domain of Mankayan said he had witnessed CMDC’s engagement with other sectors in obtaining permits for exploration drilling.
In securing the permits and approval of the requirements necessary for the exploration drilling to proceed, the company consulted all stakeholders, including the barangays of Bulalacao and Guinaoang where opposition against CMDC’s activities was strong.
The other Mankayan elders who confirmed Luspian’s statements requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from personalities opposed to CMDC’s exploration activities, even while they admitted that it was an elder representative of Barangay Bulalacao who suggested the “one-vote per barangay” rule in the FPIC process.
“We come to tell the truth about what really happened during the consultation meetings with the validated elders, the Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives (IPMRs), landowners, barangay officials and other stakeholders in Mankayan,” an elder said.
Another elder from Bulalacao said, “We are here to protect the interest of the IPs and community, not the interest of CMDC,” claiming further that during the FPIC process, people who came to attend noticed some barangay officials who left the consultation meeting even before it had started.
The elders said that during community assemblies, the company assured the participants, including the barangays that claimed to be affected by the project that the exploration drilling activities would not proceed without completing the FPIC process facilitated by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
After several consultations and winning a majority vote under the approved voting guidelines in the presence of the NCIP, the elders of the Mankayan Ancestral Domain and the CMDC signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that led to the issuance of permits and the Certificate Precondition (CP).
The NCIP issued a CP After evaluating and validating further that the FPIC processes complied with the rules and prescribed guidelines under the IPRA. It was clarified that the opposition lost in the voting with five “No” votes against seven “Yes” votes.
Despite all the legal processes and after signing the MOA, some residents of Bulalacao and Guinaoang, together with some barangay officials, barricaded the road leading to the exploration drilling sites. This, even while the landowners have already signed agreements with the CMDC.
There was even misinformation that certain landowners withdrew their consent for drilling activities inside their properties, although not one of them approached the CMDC to talk about withdrawing from their agreement.
Spokesperson Luspian described these acts, including the blocking of public roads, the misinformation about landowners withdrawing from agreements, and the questioning of the FPIC process as “inayan” which he explained as “immoral” or improper, and that such bad acts could bring misfortune or bad luck to the doer.
Meanwhile, CMDC stressed that the company’s activities were limited to mineral exploration drilling and refuted socmed posts claiming that the company intends to develop an open pit mine within the MPSA area. No permit has been issued for mining operations within the MPSA covering 534 hectares.
At the same time, it clarified malicious misinformation that the company’s exploration drilling would affect water sources for agricultural farms. Instead, it revealed a study that the expansion of commercial vegetable farming into forested watersheds was the culprit in the decline of agricultural productivity.
The study by Dr. Cirilo Lagman Jr. of the Benguet State University showed that converting forests into vegetable gardens increases water irrigation demand that disrupts the natural hydrologic cycle that replenishes underground water aquifers.
One of the elders claimed that vegetable farming and mining had co-existed for decades in Mankayan. But it was only this time that deceitful farmers have expanded their vegetable gardens by cutting down trees and terracing the Posdo Hill above Bulalacao, despite claiming to protect the environment. **March Fianza (Ed’s Note: We are duty-bound to publish the side of any party who feels aggrieved by this article.)
