Provincial Board Member Peter Unabia, irked with the natives' refusal to mining, insisted that ways should be found to cut short the tribal clearance requirement.
He suggested waiving the tribal consent when the areas being applied by mining firms are uninhabited as purportedly the case of the lands being eyed by the two Linkton firms in El Salvador.
Conrado Sescon, head of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO), said mining applications of Linkton Summit Resources and Linkton Peak have been frozen for almost six months now because the two sister companies have not yet secured clearance from residents of El Salvador where they are planning to operate.
The natives were saying, the 20-hectare area in Dalayap, El Salvador is part of their ancestral domain.
But Provincial Board Member Peter Unabia told colleagues during Monday's session that the natives' refusal has discouraged prospective mining investors from pouring their money in the province.
Several mining firms have already transferred their investments to Cagayan de Oro, where the "processing" of mining permits was faster, said PB Unabia.
The official suggested that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) should intervene to settle the matter.
Lawyer Ricardo Mateo, NCIP-Northern Mindanao legal officer, informed Unabia and other PB members that "intervention" of any nature aimed at imposing influence on Indigenous Peoples (IPs) to consent to mining operations in their areas is not allowed by law.
NCIP only coordinates and monitors relevant matters pertaining to the rights and welfare of the IPs and has no power to settle disputes between the community and the business sectors, Mateo said.
The tribal clearance or the Free and Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) certificate is given solely by the tribal community itself upon consultation with its members, he added.
FPIC is defined in Section 3 Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples' Act, as "the consensus of all members of the ICCs/IPs to be determined with their respective customary laws and practices, free from any external manipulation, interference, coercion, and obtained after fully disclosing the intent and scope of the activity, in a language and process understandable to the community."
Vice Governor Norris Babiera said Unabia's proposal should be weighed between the development of the province and the rights of the tribes living in resource-rich hinterlands.
