INDIGENOUS groups in Benguet province are urging the Congress to hasten the passage of House Bill (HB) 4387 declaring Kibungan town as a mining-free zone.
Members of the Philippine Misereor Partners (PMP)–North Luzon Cluster called on lawmakers to immediately enact the bill "that upholds the rights of the indigenous people to self-determination and sustaining their ancestral domain ensuring the future of the next generation."
Under HB 4387, "it will be unlawful for any person to engage in any mining operation in the municipality of Kibungan, and any person found guilty of violating the provisions of the act will be penalized with an imprisonment of at least six years but not more than 12 years and a fine of at least P100,000 but not more than P500,000."
The measure added that "if the offender is a corporation, firm, partnership or association, the penalty will be imposed upon the officer or officers of the corporation, firm, partnership or association responsible for the violation."
PMP–North Luzon said the immediate passage of the law would protect Kibungan, which is recognized as an ancestral domain of the indigenous people in the area by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Benguet Representative Ronald Cosalan, who authored the bill, said large-scale mining causes ground sinking, various illnesses due to pollution and dangerous chemicals used and produced in the mining process, depletion of water resources, and destruction of the environment as a whole.
Cosalan said the Kibungan Kankana-ey Tribe and the local government of Kibungan formulated a 10-Year Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development Protection Plan (ADSDPP) in November 2006 that paved the way for the approval of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (Clup).
Based on the Clup, the ancestral land will only be used as primarily for agriculture, cultivation of high value crops as primary source of livelihood, communal water shed, communal forest, pasture lands, cemetery, parks and institutional purposes, among others.
Kibungan town boasts of beautiful sceneries like the Les-eng rice terraces surrounded by solid rock formations and the century-old Palina rice terraces that turn golden yellow near harvest time. (University of Cordilleras intern Louie Anne Mapa)