CALANASAN, Apayao – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DEnR) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) are working on the final terms and conditions of the small-scale mining contracts that will be issued to two approved Minahang Bayan groups in the municipality to allow their legitimate operations in their identified work stations in the coming months.
MGB-CAR regional director Engr. Fay W. Apil said that the two Minahang Bayan organizations that are awaiting the finalization of their respective small-scale mining contracts are the Bulawan Land owners Small-Scale Mining Association in barangay Butao and the Y-Calanasan Minahang Bayan Association based in barangay Tanglagan.
She claimed that the said groups are working on their respective compliance to some conditions of their Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECCs) prior to the finalization of their small-scale mining contracts that will allow them to operate under the Minahang Bayan program.
The MGB-CAR official pointed out that the upcoming operation of the two additional Minahang Bayan groups in the municipality will bring to four the number of operating Manahang Bayan in the region following the earlier operation of similar groups in Luacan, Itogon, Benguet and Fedilisan, Sagada, Mountain Province.
Earlier, the MGB-CAR was able to process the Minahang Bayan applications of some 13 small-scale mining associations in the different parts of the region but only two groups were able to complete the tedious process and submit the complete documents that paved the way for their eventual operation under the Minahang Bayan program.
According to him, the MGB already brought to the attention of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NcIP) the pertinent issues and concerns raised by various small-scale mining associations on their difficulties in complying with the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process being required before the issuance of their small-scale mining contracts and other related documents.
Director Apil said that the MGB understands the concerns of the concerned small-scale mining associations who want to legitimize their operations but are having difficulty in complying with the FPIC process considering that the applicants have to secure the consent of the whole ancestral domain.
She emphasized the need to facilitate the completion of the documentary requirements of the other applicants for the issuance of the Minahang Bayan small-scale mining contracts so that other similar groups will be encouraged to submit their respective applications and legitimate their operations under the said program.
Apil revealed that the associations that are able to secure their small-scale mining contracts from the agency will be able to fully operate under the Minahang Bayan with strict supervision from concerned authorities to ensure that their operations will comply with the prescribed standards as stipulated in the ECCs that had been issued to the permittees.
She admitted that small-scale mining has been an age-old livelihood of thousands of small-scale miners who are living within identified mineralized communities in the different parts of the region where said activity had contributed in improving the living condition of families from inside and outside the Cordillera. By Dexter A. See
