Today, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is scheduled to visit the southern municipalities of Bataraza and Balabac that share watersheds with three other municipalities around Mt. Mantalingahan, a proposed protected area that has become controversial lately.
I was planning to lift my self imposed embargo on mining stories by covering last week’s rally of a group of pro-mining indigenous leaders in Brooke’s Point but domestic priorities got in the way that I had to skip it. I did a story a few weeks earlier quoting the NGOs and Brooke’s Point Vice Mayor Jean Feliciano alluding to the mining companies pulling the strings on Brofetrics, the group of tribal leaders that are rallying against the designation of Mt. Mantalingahan as a protected area. For that, I received several threatening text messages that got my editors worried they asked me to go easy on these sort of stories. No story is worth risking one’s life, or so goes the old newsroom adage.
The interesting matter about Brofetrics isn’t what their press releases, obviously churned out by PR operators and placed in some dailies and local papers as legitimate stories, are saying. The meat of the story is the proxy battle going on between the NGOs and the DENR-PAWB that are behind the Mt. Mantalingahan project versus the mining companies. Brofetrics, sad to say, are but a pawn in this game and it pains to see them mouth words and concepts they hardly understand.
The declaration of Mt. Mantalingahan as a protected landscape is on its final stage of completion and is pending the signature of PGMA. Mining companies, even though their existing tenement holdings are not curtailed by the proposed protected area, cannot afford to openly oppose its declaration so they are having the tribes carry their cudgels.
It was evident from the recent meetings in the PCSD that even the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) is opposed to the protected area but it has chosen to be implicit in its stand, suggesting instead that the government consider excising a third of the originally proposed area of over 120,000 hectares that have potential nickel deposits underneath.
PGMA is sitting on the Mantalingahan proclamation. There are indications that Malacanang will hedge on its signing because of the mining lobby. The last remaining forest bloc in Southern Palawan with spectacular biodiversity also happens to be the mother load of today’s gold – nickel ore. Communities are split between pro and anti mining, and the coming 2010 elections make the issue a political one as well.
The provincial government has declared its support to the Mantalingahan project. Governor Joel T. Reyes, who has been receiving flak from the anti mining groups, is first to claim that he is the driving force behind the Mantalingahan protected area initiative. He had even ordered a moratorium on mining applications in the proposed site.
Will the provincial government backtrack on its erstwhile position on this? This should be in the agenda of PGMA when she visits Southern Palawan. Let’s watch the body language then.
May 29, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I would appreciate if you can refer to us a map of the Matalihagan area to show the mining sites in relation to the protected area. This is in relation to research we doing on indigenous communities. Please check your published email add for a few more requests. Thanks and Keep up the good work!
May 30, 2008 at 11:45 am
there is a way to accommodate mining within a protected area. there are many examples of this set up around the world. im sure if the companies you are referring to are well meaning, they will make the argument themselves and not use the tribes to promote their interest
May 30, 2008 at 11:53 am
let just leave matalinhangan what is it. to much for these mining people. there are place for mining and for God sake there are place that we need to protect. not all lands are for mining purposes. imagine… this is all about money, greed… that is the bottom of all of this. this tribe has a lot of things to loss while this shareholders are just trying to rake more profits… we don’t need technicalities here, we don’t science here… just be human.
June 2, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I certainly believe that behind these indigenous people’s opposition on Matalingahan Protected area declaration are the mining companies whose sole purpose is to feeding their greed for power and money. I pity the latter for they still need the IPs just to play their dirty games.
June 3, 2008 at 11:00 am
The lessons learned from the legal but irresponsible mining and flattenning of the Rio Tuba mountains that led to the almost total wiping out of population of the tribal communities (due to famine, drought, malaria and flash floods) living within the 5 flattenned mountains of Rio Tuba, Sumbiling and Kolandanum , should have served as wake up call for the concerned tribes. For these reasons, I believe that the tribes who wanted Mt. Matalingahan mined are either paid generously or blinded by promises of mining lobbyists and paid propagandists that they even wanted to violate laws (ECAN) and gamble on their tribes’ future just to please the greedy miners. To all concerned, please try to discern all the issues and be forward looking too. Well, kung gusto ninyong maging disyerto ang matalingahan, sa kulungan ninyo na lang planuhin ang mga iyan.
July 31, 2008 at 4:34 pm
There was an effigy burning held by parties opposed to mining. A child set it alight as indigenous people reportedly danced around it in full traditional costume.
Which leads some of us to think: Why the theatrics? Is this the “imago ng katutubo” that they want to project?
Just like any other Filipino, many of these people wish to live in the 21st century. They want jobs, they want stable sources of income, they want programs that will help them build their future. Progress is what they want, what all of us wants.
Preservation of cultural artifacts vs. Progress, such a conflict will not exist if there is a conscious effort to maintain and attain both. If we’re looking for IPs in Rio Tuba, we shouldn’t look for men and women in their traditional costumes because we certainly wouldn’t find any.
They weren’t wiped out, they just moved in to the 21st century.
August 12, 2008 at 12:21 pm
The effigy burning symbolized the opposition of brooke’s point residents against mining particularly the operations of macroasia, ipilan nickel and lebach mining corporation. karla’s comment was out of tune.
the IPs had participated in the rally obviously due to the possible and horrendous impact of mining activities on their lives and culture. for more than 30 years of RTNMC operation the lives of the IPs did not change for the better but for worse. what happened to the IPs in Bataraza? did they move to the 21st century that karla is saying? or are you saying that moving to 21st century is wiping out the cultures and traditional livelihoods of the IPs? or maybe we should start eating nickel ore now for us to be “IN”…