BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB-CAR) and the different City and Provincial Mining Regulatory Boards in the region are currently assessing and evaluating some sixty nine pending Minahanag Bayan applications covering various mineral-rich areas for their possible declaration as such pursuant to the pertinent provisions of existing mining laws, rules and regulations.
MGB-CAR mine safety, environment and social development division chief Engr. Felizardo Gacad disclosed that only 1 application was able to be declared by the Benguet PMRB as a Minahang Bayan but the applicant, the Luacan, Itogon Pocket Miners Association (LITMA), must still have to pass through the rigid process of securing a small-scale mining contract from the agency.
Of the 70 submitted Minahang Bayan applications regionwide, Benguet accounted for the most number of applicants with 32 followed by Apayao with 15, Abra and Baguio with 7 applicants each, Mountain Province with 5 and Ifugao and Kalinga with 2 applicants each.
In terms of the number of small-scale mining associations that applied for the declaration of Minahang Bayna in their areas of operation, Benguet still had the most number of pocket mining groups with 66 followed by Apayao with 27 associations, Abra and Baguio with 7 groups each, Mountain Province with 5 and Ifugao and Kalinga with 2 associations each.
Earlier, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu ordered a temporary stoppage in all small-scale mining activities in the Cordillera following the tragic Ucab, Itogon landslide at the height of Supertyphoon Ompong that claimed over 70 lives of small-scale miners who were trapped in a chapel where they sought refuge during the wrath of the weather disturbance.
“The government wants that pocket miners do their trade right to prevent serious threats to the environment, health and safety of the people living in the communities where they operate that is why they are mandated to comply with certain regulations that will help improve the state of their trade,” Gacad stressed.
He claimed that among the challenges that applicants for the declaration of Minahang Bayan sites face at the moment is the permission from owners of the titles that cover their applied areas and the consent of the indigenous peoples who own the ancestral domain of the proposed sites of their pocket mining activities, thus, it is best for them to unite and work together in seeking the consent of land owners and the domain holders for their regulated operations.
According to him, there is a need for the sustained information and education campaign that should be conducted by the concerned government agencies and the local governments on the matter so that small-scale miners will understand that the regulation of their operations will actually translate to their benefit because they will be spared from whatever hazards of the trade once appropriate mitigating measures will be put in place.
The MGB-CAR official said that the pending applications are in different stages of the process although most are awaiting the schedule of the conduct of their free and prior consent consultations with the affected indigenous peoples for them to be able to hurdle one of the most difficult requirements in the simplified process for Minahang Bayan applications
By HENT
