Late last year, the Itogon Indigenous Peoples Organization (IIPO) a duly recognized indigenous peoples organization in the mineral rich town of Itogon, Benguet, entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc. (ISRI) for the company’s Application for Production Sharing Agreement (APSA) 103 for the expansion of its mining operations from the applied area of more than 561 hectares covering barangays Poblacion, Ampucao and Virac to an agreed area of more or less 290 hectares or a reduction of more than one half of the applied area. The MOA was a product of more than five years of tedious negotiations between the concerned indigenous peoples (IPs) group and the company until such time that they were able to agree on the terms and conditions of the agreement that are mutually beneficial to both parties while addressing various issues and concerns ranging from environmental preservation and protection, benefits of the host and neighboring communities, economic activities and sources of livelihood aside from different forms of assistance that will be given to the organization as a whole for the benefit of the members.
The MOA passed the scrutiny of the regional review team (RRT) of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the certificate of pre-condition (CP) is awaiting approval by the Commission en banc pursuant to the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).
However, a purported indigenous peoples organization who called themselves the Dalicno Indigenous Peoples Organization (DIPO) suddenly surfaced and filed a petition before the NCIP central office accusing NCIP-CAR officials of alleged grave abuse of authority and grave misconduct by raising rehashed allegations against them which were actually fully addressed by the concerned parties prior to the signing of the MOA. The group is turning out to be a bogus indigenous peoples organization not accredited or registered with any government agency. It is not also recognized by the Ampucao Indigenous Peoples Organization (AIPO) and the IIPO which is the mother IP organization. This new group claims to be the voice of the IPs in sitio Dalicno, barangay Ampucao but it was just organized to disrupt the ongoing proceedings before the NCIP by using rehashed arguments duly addressed during the consultations in relation to the MOA. It is turning out that people behind this irritant are disgruntled illegal small-scale miners who want to pursue their unregulated small-scale mining activities in the area. The group is being allegedly agitated by some embattled NCIP-CAR employees who are reportedly close allies of a ranking Commission officer wanting to questionably lord it over the body in exchange for juicy positions once they are able to successfully oust those who are in power in the said office.
We certainly believe that what DIPO is fighting for is not for the community but it is for the personal greed of the disgruntled small-scale miners who fear that the operation of large scale and legitimate mining operations will cause their displacement from their working areas. In fact, these illegal small-scale miners should be grateful to the local government and the regulatory agencies for not aggressively going after them because the temporary ban against small scale mining issued by former Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu remains in full force and effect. Operating illegally, these small scale miners are not paying taxes to the government which is the duty of all good citizens. Further, their operations are not regulated and can cause safety and environmental disasters. Such antagonistic gesture of this particular group of small scale miners tend to send a wrong message to investors that investing in the municipality does not get good returns on investment due to unpredictable dealings with certain parties.
We also do not understand why some cause-oriented groups are trying to become the mouth pieces of the falsehoods being advanced by the illegal small scale miners when in fact, they should be the ones to correct such dis-information and mal-information being waged by the self-styled individuals and groups in the said area.
Small-scale miners should also be grateful to the company for offering to embrace them through its big brother, small brother (BBSB) program for them to be able to legally operate as the firm will take care of the technical matters which could not be done by the pocket miners. We do not blame the company for not renewing whatever contracts it entered with its partners because of evident violations which they refuse to address. The small scale mining groups should remember that their operations are governed by laws, rules and regulations which they need to adhere to . Gone are those days that they were tolerated because they have to adhere to existing laws covering mining operations. Remember that we are governed by laws.
These illegal small-scale miners should not wait for the time that concerned agencies and the local government will be fed up on what they insist to do because they will surely be at the losing end once the stringent regulations will be enforced to the fullest without fear or favor. They should actually take advantage of the favor granted to them to operate or else it will be the end of their lucrative source of livelihood.
