Local communities want South Cotabato mining ban lifted

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines — Ethnic Blaans and thousands of rice farmers in South Cotabato province were elated with current consultations on mounting public clamor to lift a provincial ban on mining activities.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan started the dialogues on the issue two weeks ago to generate multi-sector consensus on strong cross-section appeals for the provincial law-making body to allow mining activities in South Cotabato, particularly in Tampakan town.

Thousands of indigenous Blaans and non-tribal settlers in Tampakan, proven to have large deposits of copper, and the business groups in South Cotabato have, for so many years now, been vocal in opposing the provincial open-pit mining ban.

European mining engineers, geologists and experts from Australia have placed, based on longtime extensive field studies, at no less than €5.8 billion (Euro currency) their least estimate of the value of copper deposits in Blaan ancestral lands in Tampakan.

“We have been wishing for this to happen since 1995. Only by allowing mining operations in Tampakan can our tribe have peace, security and progress,” a senior Blaan tribal representative, Bai Dalena Samling, told reporters Saturday.

Samling is among dozens of influential representatives from the Blaan women sector in Tampakan and nearby towns who have long been urging the provincial board to rescind its province-wide anti-mining ban.

The Blaan communities, the non-Blaan settlers and local officials in Tampakan and in nearby Columbio, Malungon, and Kiblawan towns in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and Davao del Sur, respectively, have also been openly expressing support for the extraction of copper in tribal domains.

Municipal executives said the Blaan and non-Blaan residents of Columbio, Malungon and Kiblawan are also to prosper if mining operations in Tampakan proceed, owing to the proximity of hinterland tribal enclaves in the three areas to the copper-rich municipality.

Kiblawan Mayor Carl Jason Rama and his counterpart in Malungon, Mayor Theresa Constantino, are both anticipating what is for them foreseeable socio-economic developments in Blaan villages in their respective towns as a consequence of mining activities in Tampakan.

Mayor Edwin Bermudez of Columbio also wishes for the lifting soon of the mining ban in South Cotabato by its provincial board.

Many Blaans, among them teachers and health workers, are ranting on what they call affront to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Republic Act 8371) the opposition by small outsider groups, citing possible hazards to the environment,  to any extraction of copper in Tampakan.

The RA 8371 empowers indigenous communities to utilize the natural resources obtainable in their ancestral domain, based on regulations of the national government, for their benefit.

A group of senior officials from the central office of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources discussed mining prospects and other issues with South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. in a dialogue here last month.

Samling and Vicente Gatuslao, indigenous people’s representative in Tampakan, separately said the dialogue was, for the Blaan communities, something so positive.

“We want our voices heard too on why we favor mining operations in Tampakan.” Gatuslao said.

Marlon Macera, top official of a local irrigators’ association with more than 2,000 members engaged in rice farming, said Saturday no fewer than 20,000 farmers in this city and nearby towns belonging to various organizations are to benefit from a P400 million water impoundment dam a prospective mining promised to construct in Tampakan once the mining ban gets lifted.

“We have been having shortages of water from irrigation facilities we presently have. Here is a firm that promises to build for us a dam up there in Tampakan. Lifting the mining ban shall be a pro-poor, pro-farmer initiative. Letting it stay is like a `kiss of death’ for us, rice producers,” Macera said

The mining firm planning to operate in Tampakan since 1995 has assured to provide at least P400 million for the construction of the dam by the National Irrigation Administration.

Another official of an equally large irrigators’ group, Judy Laranjo, said the construction of the dam will address shortages of water for their rice fields, a problem besetting them for about two decades now.

“Opposing mining operations in Tampakan is killing thousands of rice farmers softly. Production has been getting low every year due to shortage of water to irrigate these farms. We need to have a responsible mining firm up there to help us cope with this constraint through social responsibility programs, Laranjo said.

Outsider Catholic Church leaders in Koronadal City are against proposals to lift the provincial board’s ban on mining activities in the province.

However, many Catholics, among them members of the business communities, are for mining operations in Tampakan, aware of its benefits like generation of employment for Blaan and non-Blaan residents of South Cotabato province and revenues for the government.

“The ban should be lifted now. Our government has been made debt-ridden by the COVID-19 pandemic. Economy has gone down as a consequence. We need to let copper extraction activities in Tampakan happen now,"  an owner of a big roadside fuel station here said Saturday.

He described as “hypocrisy and anti-peace” the opposition by outsiders to mining operations in Tampakan.