Real story in Bayog

This is in reaction to the report titled “MGB: Remove guards of illegal mine.” (Inquirer, 8/20/11)

1. The Mining Law says no ancestral lands shall be opened for mining without the consent of the indigenous cultural community concerned.  The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Ipra) grants indigenous people (IP) priority rights in the harvesting, extraction, development and exploitation of any natural resources within the ancestral domain.

2. En Banc Res. No. 272 of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) (a) recognizes Edal and his Council of Elders as the administrators of the Bayog Ancestral Domain (b) and Lupa Pigigetawan as its economic arm; (c) directs Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to cancel non-consented claims; and (d) directs DENR to issue a mining permit to the Subanens.

3. The non-consented claims listed by NCIP were canceled and a Special Ore Extraction Permit (SOEP) was issued to Lupa allowing it to explore, mine and process minerals in its ancestral domain.

4. Seven months later, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau resurrects Bayog 9’s mining claim by issuing an exploration permit (EP).

5. Prior to the issuance of Bayog 9’s EP, NCIP Region 9 Director Abdul Puengan, a Cerilles protégé, conducted consent proceedings in which the Council of Elders were not involved and the voters were nine fake Timuays who were trucked to another town, being led to believe they were going to a fiesta.

8. Puengan has been removed from his position as NCIP 9 director.

9. Lupa contracts Anseca, the largest mining contractor in the Philippines, which hires over a thousand Subanens to assist. Anseca is 100-percent owned by Filipinos.

10. Cerilles’ lawyer files a case against Lupa for injunction, with TRO, to stop the mining activities of Lupa. No TRO was issued.

11. Stymied in court (the proper forum), Bayog 9 procures a unilateral (no summons, no hearing) Cease and Desist Order (CDO) against Lupa.

12. Cerilles sends platoons of policemen to implement CDO but fails because the policemen backed out after being handed a letter of protest on grounds that (a) the CDO was void for lack of due process; (b) it had been appealed to the office of the environment

secretary.

13. The day following the raid, Inquirer runs a report that Lupa had been successfully made to cease and desist, its contractor’s heavy equipment being towed away from the mine site.  No such thing happened.

14. A few weeks later, Cerilles’ people and the police raid the ancestral domain, and succeed by force in stopping Lupa’s work. Anseca has left, at least a thousand Subanens have lost their newfound livelihoods, Anseca’s machinery and equipment and iron ore inventory are on constructive seizure.

15. Ombudsman complaints have been filed in the aftermath of the raid because (a) the raid was conducted without the necessary court warrant and (b) the search and seizure were improperly used for the benefit of one party in a private dispute, which our laws do not allow.

16.  MGB Region 9 Director Johann Jacildo, who issued the CDO, has certified that he did not order the raid.

—MANUEL GO,

counsel for Lupa Pigigetawan

Mining Company Inc.

and the Indigenous Peoples of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur