A tribal leader in Carrascal town, Surigao del Sur, on Sunday appealed to the government to consider the potential adverse impact of mining measures on the lives and livelihood of the people.
In a statement, Hawudon Datu Engwan Ala, 42, a municipal chieftain of an Indigenous People’s tribe in Carrascal, Surigao del Sur, said indigenous cultural communities such as his will suffer if mining operations will cease in the Caraga region.
“We tribesmen are the very first to be affected because we rely on these companies for our jobs and source of living,” he said.
The statement was issued by the tribal leader just as lawmakers take on a proposed mining revenue measure that will potentially deal a so-called death blow to the mining industry.
Datu Engwan worked at CTP Construction and Mining Corp. from 2005 to 2013 before he became a Manobo-Mamanwa tribal chieftain. Through generations, members of the Manobo tribe intermarried with the Mamanwas who traditionally reside in Agusan del Norte, the Surigao region, Panaoan Island and Southern Leyte and are believed to be descendants of the original settlers of the Philippines.
However peaceful, some Mamanwa communities were often disturbed by illegal dynamite fishers, suffered discrimination and had no access to proper education—that is, until local mining embarked on a common development road map that would elevate the living standards of the tribes.
At present, there are more than 3,000 local workers employed by mining companies and 800 families from the IP communities in the mining operations in Carrascal.
A majority of Datu Engwan Engwan’s community members are employed by Carrascal Nickel Corp., CTP Construction and Mining Corp. and Marcventures Development Corp.
Regular training such as heavy equipment operation, driving and various livelihood skills are also provided for the continuous development of the community.
Apart from the job opportunities, the IP communities also receive a royalty share of the gross value of the products of the mining operators as stipulated by the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 for the protection of their ancestral lands.
These royalties also enable the indigenous cultural communities to exercise their inherent right to self-determination, gain access to education and livelihood, as well as preserve their cultural heritage.
Moreover, each company allocates 1.5 percent of the mines’ direct operating costs as funds for a social development management program for non-tribal communities.
These are used for the health, education, livelihood, public infrastructure and sociocultural development of these communities.
Datu Engwan also cites education as an essential contribution, where the ability to send the new generation of their tribe to school is life-changing and, indeed, priceless.
“Most of us were not really able to go to school. But our children, they are now able to go to college—there are a few now taking nursing, accounting, and we even have one going to law school in Manila,” he said.
“We plead for the government to assess the situation carefully. We will be forced to revert to our old ways just as when we’ve already improved the quality of our lives, we were able to build our houses already. What will now happen to the education of our children, to the projects we’ve started to do?” he said. “Our lives are already doing well.”