Is wealth gained by giant corporations in Asia’s Tampakan copper-gold deposite worth the lives of indigenous people?

From the article  of Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews produced under the Environmental Investigative Reporting Fellowship project of the International Women’s Media Foundation) http://www.mindanews.com/environment/2012/11/12/the-tampakan-project-battle-over-southeast-asias-largest-copper-gold-deposit-2/

Tampakan mine area map

Dubbed the largest foreign direct investment in the Philippines, the $5.9 billion Tampakan mining project faces two major challenges: the ban on open pit mining imposed by the South Cotabato provincial government and the increasing activism of environment groups and local Catholic clergy which had made clear their  anti-mining stance.

However, it caused hostility toward the project among tribespeople who fear that the mines development will lead to their displacement and the destruction of their way of life. Some have taken up arms to protect what they insist is their ancestral domain.

Juvy Capion

Unfortunately,  several lives have been lost, among them Gurilmin Malid and Pensing Dialang, who were both killed in 2002 allegedly because of their anti-mining stance.  This localized yet deadly war has also recently led to the killing of Juvy Capion and her two sons on October 18, following a clash allegedly between Philippine soldiers of  27^th IB and tribesmen led by her husband, Daguel Capion.  Capion has been leading the opposition to the mining project and had openly declared war on Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) for allegedly disrespecting the rights of the tribe. Capion also expressed concerns about the negative impact of the mining project on the environment. In the insuing skirmish, Capion was wounded and gone into hiding,  but his wife, Juvy, and her sons Jordan, 13, and John Mark, 8 were allegedly killed by the pursuing Philippine Army group.   The couple’s four-year old daughter Angeline, fondly called Vicky, was unhurt. The girl’s future remains uncertain given the rising tensions within the tribal community of Bong Mal, where the killing happened.

Bong Mal is the traditional B’laan territory straddling Barangay Danlag, Tampakan in South Cotabato and Barangay Kimlawis, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur. At the heart of the mines development site, it serves as a crucial artery for the mining company to move around the mountains.

Since late 2009 until March 2011, Capion expressed his opposition to the Tampakan project through peaceful means, either by joining anti-mining activities in the lowlands or speaking before his fellow tribesmen about the impact of the mining project on their community.

“If SMI or its supporters have been telling the outside world that everything is smooth in the mines development site, that’s not true,” Daguel Capion said on October 1 in the same hut where his wife and two young children would be felled by bullets 17 days later. “We would be displaced to places where living would have to be dictated by money,”

Daguel Capion

Capion  left SMI after realizing that the stake of the tribal people and the environment is far greater than what the mining firm is offering them, such as jobs.  Before he took up arms, Capion was a regular presence in anti-mining activities spearheaded by religious groups. In 2011, Capion took up arms and led a band that ambushed and killed three workers of a construction company hired by SMI for a road project. He admitted the ambush which is the reason why he is being hunted by the military. Capion and his band of armed B’laan tribesmen did not leave Bong Mal even as they were  the subject of a military manhunt.  According to Capion, staying around Bong Mal would prove that he and his followers have not joined or have linked up with the NPA.

The military, during the November 5 press conference, stressed that Capion, “the leader of an armed bandit, has more or less five followers.  Within the mines development site, the Philippine Army has set up several detachments to maintain peace and order and as buffer to the NPA rebels.

Did the annual financial assistance ensured by the principal agreements improve the lives of communities or the tribal communities in Bong Mal?

In downtown Tampakan, the economy does not seem to have perked up as there are no banks and modern buildings as yet. The only semblance of improvement in a town that hosts what is supposed to be massive mineral wealth, are the new municipal hall and a portion of the public market. Vice Mayor Relly Leysa denies reports the town hall was constructed with SMI funding. He said it was constructed from local government funds and a loan, although SMI’s annual cash assistance helped build portions of the town’s gymnasium and the new public market building, and for the scholarship of elementary and high school students.

Clash of national vs. local laws

The Philippines’ Mining Act of 1995 or Republic Act 9742 does not prohibit open-pit mining method, but the DENR cited the prohibition on open-pit mining imposed by South Cotabato as the reason for rejecting the SMI’s ECC application.

The issuance of the new mining policy by President Aquino in June 2012 did not explicitly lift the open-pit ban of South Cotabato, although Executive Order (EO) 79 states the need in Section 12 for the “Consistency of Local Ordinances with the Constitution and National Laws/ LGU Cooperation.”

The South Cotabato provincial government, headed by Gov. Arthur Pingoy, Jr., has defied EO 79, stressing that LGUs have the right to protect their environmental territory under the Local Government Code of 1991.

The Tampakan project has become so complicated it requires a tough balancing act to weigh its potential economic windfall on the one hand and, on the other, its adverse impact on the environment and the people’s lives.

Security and human rights issues have to be addressed as well given the killings and other acts of violence that hound the mine project, and how the entry of a project that touted to bring development to the area has instead triggered schisms among the indigenous peoples.

South Cotabato Vice Governor Elmo Tolosa says  there is and that is for SMI to proceed with “little or no opposition” by using tunneling, instead of the open pit mining method.  

The company, however, maintains the only viable option is open-pit mining.

The indigenous people of Tampakan is continuing to oppose the mining venture in their ancestral land and the reply of the Philippine president is to militarize the area. The national leadership of Aquino favors the mining giant corporations like the SMI and Xtrata at the expense og the indigenous people of Mindanao. 

President Aquino is expecting that the mining operations will contribute greatly to his much boasted "economic progress" that was never really felt by the nation. It is really worth?