Baguilat asks for mining moratorium

Saturday, June 11, 2011

IFUGAO Representative Teddy Baguilat called on President Benigno Aquino to call a mining moratorium anew in a privilege speech he delivered in Congress.

“I call on President Simeon Benigno Aquino III to immediately issue an executive order calling for the moratorium on mining while we are at the process of improving our mining policies. This is in line to the House Resolution 00528 that I filed last year which has not yet been acted upon,” Baguilat said.

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Baguilat discussed mining woes in the region and how it has affected the environment and the surrounding communities.

Aside from the conflicts, mining also causes food insecurity to affected communities and has caused the destruction of their pristine forests and agricultural lands, Baguilat stressed.

“The long running operations of Lepanto Mining Company in Benguet that had wrought environmental destruction with one school literally swallowed to the ground when one mountain caved in.”

Baguilat cited downstream areas in Mankayan are also affected by the mine tailings. In the municipality of Cervantes, their river is polluted by toxic chemicals coming from the mines and had caused the drying up of rice fields near the river bank and stunted growth of their rice plants.

Baguilat also said mining has also led to the killing of some of our key indigenous leaders “among those killed for their opposition to mining are Marcus Bangit of Kalinga who was killed by unidentified gunmen when he was en route to Baguio with his son.”

Bangit is a known indigenous activist leader of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance who is working for the defense of land, life and resources of the indigenous peoples in the North.
“This has become a vicious cycle where communities who struggle against encroachments into their territories would almost always face threats to their lives because of the onslaught of large scale mining. 

“We as indigenous peoples will persist with our struggle to defend our land, territories and resources from development aggression. We will not waver as this will be our legacy to the future generations of IPs,” Baguilat said in closing.