HUNDREDS of indigenous people belonging to Katribu Party-list will mark Wednesday's 40th Earth Day with a protest and ritual condemning the anti-lumad and anti-environment nine-year track record of the President.
Jomorito Goaynon, Katribu regional coordinator, said that since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s rise to power in 2001, mining, logging, plantations, mega-dams and other anti-environment projects sprouted like mushrooms in Northern Mindanao.
These include the environmentally hazardous coal-fired power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental; the mega-dam project in Pulangi V; bio-ethanol plant project in Bayanga and Mambuaya in Cagayan de Oro, which was temporarily deferred due to the residents strong opposition; expansion of the Dole and Del Monte’s pineapple and banana plantations; massive land conversions like the Hanjin Shipyard in Misamis Oriental; and the unmitigated entry of large mining corporations in the forests of Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro.
Goaynon said Arroyo’s policy in addressing the demands of the indigenous people to ancestral domain claim and right to self-determination is instead terror and destruction. He was referring to the Mining Act of 1995, which, he said, has been implemented continually despite the Supreme Court’s decision that it is unconstitutional.
“The Mining Act of 1995 has been a ticket of the government to continually plunder our flora and fauna at the expense of the lives of thousands of indigenous people in the region. Arroyo has only shown that she is indeed anti Lumad and anti-environment contrary to her persistent claim to being pro-poor and pro-environment,” Goaynon said.
Bukidnon, dubbed as the food basket of Mindanao, now no longer yields corn, rice and vegetables but is instead a main producer of pineapples and bananas for export.
Dole-Philippines, Del Monte, Davco and six other big foreign companies presently control 50 plantations that cover 70,128.28 hectares of the province. The set-up of these plantations has destroyed forests to give way to high-value crops. The soil in plantations becomes eventually unproductive due to the heavy chemical treatment of the land. It has also become a home to large mining companies that have encroached on 43,428.25 hectares of land mostly in upland, hinterland areas where majority of the lumads live.
“As we celebrate today’s Earth Day, we express our repugnance to this administration for it has only caused further environmental destruction, dislocation and alienation of our people to the genuine freedom from economic and societal discrimination,” Goaynon said.
He said consistent with Arroyo’s destructive policy is her terror policy against those who oppose her and those who defend the environment.
Goaynon also said that several lumad leaders and members of Katribu Party-list have been harassed, vilified and killed since 2001. These include the unsolved dastardly murders of Mampaagi Belayong, Aladino Badbaran and Rico Badbaran.
He added that thousands of families all over the region are already displaced because of the massive militarization in upland areas, which are "actually disguised military-ops to pave the way for the entry of foreign mining and logging companies."
“The Bantay Laya 2 anti-insurgency drive of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is merely a front to implement her design of making this region a basket-case of barren lands and destroyed fauna. As early as now, we express our grief should Asin’s ditty on the environment called ‘Kapaligaran’ will reach its full crescendo,” Goaynon said.