RIGHTS-BASED FACT FINDING MISSION: A PHENOMELOGICAL STUDY OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY AND MINING ISSUES OF BAYOG TOWN (Zamboanga del Sur)

FFM Teams are composed of PhilRights Inc., DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI), Social Action Ministry-Ipil (SAM), Legal Rights and Natural Resource Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan (KsK),Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Meriam College, Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), Ecoweb Inc., Medical Action Group (MAG) and Pikhumpongan Dlebon Subanen Inc. (PDSI), Bayog laymen, media workers and other support groups.

by

VIOLETA M. GLORIA

September 2010

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Human-right fact-finding investigation is crucial to understand the socio-economic and political discourse of a community that is controversially plagued with conflicting issues and interests on the utilization and maximization of its resources; of flagrant human rights violations; lack or absence of responsible governance; disorientation and non-enforcement of laws exacerbated further by disempowered local organizations that can’t independently intervene or introduce social mechanism for problems resolution.

Fact-finding becomes a strategy and method of human-right based group in gathering information and evidences that are imperative in engendering a broader understanding of an issue based on context and cultural anthropological realities.

Facts gathered will enable the teams to formulate recommendations for decisive action or as evidence to generate intervention from local, national and international development partners; concern officials within governmental structures; community-based stakeholders i.e. indigenous community; and of other affected institutions in this investigation like mining companies operating within the ancestral domain of the lumad.

Hence, the investigation drew varied expert groups or institutions for cooperative sharing of findings and information as well as concrete proposals for technical support.

The fact-finding investigation in this area was conceived following reports of series of killings by indiscriminate firing and hacking of civilians initially recorded to have reached 15 persons, 8 of whom are lumads. Reports mentioned that the killings are politically motivated though a number of harassments, surveillance and threats are related to mining operations within this municipality (CHR-Region 9, 2010).

Moreover, indicators showed that the IP communities are polarized with the vigorous entry of mining companies—both large and small scale, due to conflicting interests, lack of awareness on mining’s impact to environment and social relations, cultural disorientation, absence of opportunities or employment, and lack of transformative collective leadership that can unify the tribal community in Bayog . Some IPs opted to undergo tribal mining apparently suspected as backed with capital from Chinese business sectors while those opposed, confuses further the situation by signing an agreement with another mining company which later became a litigious issue among tribal leaders now, such as the case of Manda, along with three others, who are accused of falsifying documents at the Office of Ombudsman in Mindanao.

It is in this context that the fact-finding mission (FFM) was conducted in identified barangays of Bayog town, Zamboanga del Sur from August 28-31, 2010 by expert groups. The team was composed of representatives from PhilRights Inc., DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI), Social Action Ministry-Ipil (SAM), Legal Rights and Natural Resource Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan (KsK), Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Meriam College,Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), Ecoweb Inc., Medical Action Group (MAG) andPikhumpongan Dlebon Subanen Inc. (PDSI), media workers and other support groups.

The approach and method of the study are fitted to the sensitive construct of human right standards that are upheld in the following instruments with due respect to other existing laws:

a. Bill of Human Rights under the 1987 Philippine Constitution;

b. Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (Republic Act 8371);

c. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples;

d. Other right-based instruments upheld by the United Nations;

e. Mining Act of 1995;

f. People’s Small Scale Mining Act of 1991.

[IMPT. NOTE: This is a 36-page document and accessible to partners of the Fact Finding Mission Teams only. This post is just to provide a general picture on the conduct of said study. ~ Violy]

Mining won’t solve RP’s fiscal crisis, says environmental lawyer

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- There is no proof to claims that liberalizing the mining industry could be the answer to the country’s financial crisis and the P47 trillion expected from it is just based on the estimated mineral reserves per region, according to lawyer Marvic Leonen in a round table discussion on mining at the Dynasty Court Hotel here sponsored by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center.
“This speculated amount is not sourced from fixed accounting because aside from mere addition, the prices of metal in the market are volatile… could rise up or pull down,” Leonen, lead counsel of La Bugal in a case against Western Mining 
Corporation, told his audience of 30 law students from the cities of Butuan, Iligan, Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro.
Based on figures cited by Director Romulo Neri of the National Economic 
Development Authority, Leonen made a computation which showed that the government can only get an average income of .33% from the value of gold.
“It’s less than a cent, not reaching a cent,” he said, adding, “so, how could P 157 billion tax revenue be possible?”
“In large scale mining, the government could only earn from excise tax and not on production tax,” he noted.
“Excise tax is imposed on per value of metal only, hence it’s not a sharing on the basis of ownership and production of minerals but a sharing on exaction. Is this constitutional?” he asked.
“So, why are we rushing to destroy our resources when we will only get .33 cents per value of metal extracted; when there is no equitable sharing of net profit from the extracted resources?” he asked.
“Moreover, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is a passive regulator of mining operations because it will only wait for the submission of the company’s work plan,” he said.
“Why can’t a representative of the government sit in the Board of Directors of a mining company to take part in the decision-making of mining operation especially on matters affecting numerous people? Oh, the Supreme Court said ‘its interference and its bad’ and I said why not when those affected by displacements are citizens of the country?” he continued.
Leonen also said the government will not earn much from mining because companies would avail of tax exemptions and “net losses carry over” in the next five years during which the government will spend more on instead of benefit from mining.
“The Government sends Army in the mine site, spends for environmental rehabilitation, displacement of people from its livelihood with culture shocks, and relocation of people…… the entire bureaucracy is spending for this,” he said.
“We will have a full-blown economic crisis from environmental destruction, political dissatisfaction and social upheavals… too ripe for revolution,” he warned.(Violeta M. Gloria/MindaNews)