Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP)

Indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists demonstrated at the gates of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) today, in response to the new mining policy released today by Malacanang.

The mining policy was long-anticipated by the groups, as it had been in the pipelines since early this year.

“Thousands of indigenous peoples are affected by this piece of policy. It is mainly our ancestral lands that are being traded off in mining deals,” Piya Macliing Malayao, Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Kamp) spokesperson said. Kamp is a national alliance of indigenous peoples in the Philippines.

The new mining policy, will discontinue approval of new mining applications until further tweaks on legislation regarding mining revenue are finalized. However, it will not affect the thousands of mining applications already filed before the enactment of the Executive Order, says KAMP. “Mining corporations had long divvied off our mineral lands. Approved mining applications cover more than 1 million hectares of our country's mineral lands. So many more applications are pending. This moratorium is useless at this point,” Malayao said.

The group anticipated that the mining EO will not depart from the existing policy of mining liberalization, and will work around the Mining Act of 1995. “This comes to us as no surprise. Aquino himself has approved more than 270,000 hectares of mineral lands for mining operations in the past two years. We harbor no fancy that this EO will screech him off his path of mining plunder. Environmental destruction, human rights violations, and extrajudicial killings that stem out from the extractive industry is bound to continue,” Malayao claimed.

According to Kamp data, there are around 507 approved mining applications that cover 1,027,358 hectares of Philippine land. An estimated 60% of all these applications covers ancestral territories. “Mining is the largest threat to indigenous peoples' survival.”

Since 2009, Kamp has placed several communities under a state of ALARM—Ancestral Lands at Risk of Mining. “Mining is continually posing a threat to the survival of indigenous peoples in the country. The ALARM campaign is highlighting the struggles of indigenous peoples to defy the plunder, destruction, and human rights violations inflicted by mining liberalization to indigenous communities,” Malayao shared. “We expect that this campaign will expand in the next years, with this new pronouncement.”

The mining order has only further embedded the Mining Act of 1995, Kamp further claims. “The Mining Act has no regard for national patrimony, and does not prioritize people's rights and welfare. Aquino's new mining policy seeks to strengthen this tattered law. It is but a reconfirmation of the sapped out rhetorics of development thorough mining,” Malayao said.

This policy will be met by the people's resistance, Malayao claimed. “Indigenous peoples are set to continually defy this policy.”