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Arroyo, Supreme Court guilty of high treason

Simeon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan
Spokesperson
Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front
an allied member of the NDFP
March 11, 2005

The Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front (CPDF) accuses and condemns the Arroyo regime and the Supreme Court justices for high treason and subverting the national interest by declaring the 1995 Mining Act as constitutional in favor of foreign mining corporations. The justices should further be investigated and prosecuted for reversing their earlier decision on the Mining Act in exchange for $50 million they allegedly received as bribe from the slush fund of big foreign oil and mining corporations.

The government and the mining corporations claim that the revolutionary mass movement and the people are against development because they oppose destructive mining. Such twisted logic is meant to obscure the issue. What the revolutionary mass movement and the people oppose is plunder disguised as development. The issue is for whose development and benefit are these mining corporations?

The Arroyo regime claims that corporate mining will generate employment for the people and income for the government. Modern large-scale mining, however, is highly mechanized and employs a relatively small number of workers who will be paid with measly wages, in contrast with the multi-million superprofits the foreign capitalists will rake in. The number of peasants who will lose their land and livelihood from corporate mining will be far greater than the number of workers that will be employed. The only "income" that the government will get will mostly be bribes and kickbacks. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the foreign mining corporations will enjoy 100% foreign equity, 100% repatriation of profits, numerous tax exemptions and holidays, and many other benefits. The Mining Act grants big capitalists not only mining rights, but also timber rights, water rights, and "easement rights" � the latter meaning the right to ease out the people from the land covered by mining applications.

The Arroyo regime's claim of recognizing ancestral land rights and protecting the environment is also mere propaganda. Gloria Arroyo laid bare the national patrimony to be raped by foreigners when she signed Executive Order 270 known as the National Policy Agenda on Revitalizing Mining in the Philippines. She has also issued another executive order instructing the DENR to review all ancestral land certificates issued by the NCIP. This means that the DENR is empowered to override or invalidate ancestral land claims and titles. Although the mining corporations are required to get the "free and prior informed consent" of the people before they are allowed to operate, they can easily bypass or circumvent this through bribery, intimidation, deception, and divide-and-rule tactics, with the active help of the government, the military, and reformist NGOs.

The Arroyo regime is doing nothing to stop the pollution caused by the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company. Lepanto uses bulk mining method which has caused erosion, sinking areas, and the disappearance of water sources in Mankayan. The people living near Lepanto's exhaust pipe also complain of respiratory diseases, nausea, and vomiting. Lepanto expels a daily average of 1,500 tons of mining waste containing cyanide which is washed away into the Abra river during the rainy season. This has been happening for more than 60 years now, affecting 100,000 people living along the Abra River in 19 municipalities and four provinces. Even now, Lepanto, through the Chamber of Mines, is trying to bribe the Mining and Geosciences Bureau to raise the acceptable limits for cyanide that the mines can expel into the environment.

The people along the Abra River attest that mine silt has ruined many of their farms and has drastically reduced rice production and fish population. This has been confirmed by doctors, agriculturists, scientists and other professionals from the Save the Abra River Movement (STARM) who have conducted several investigative missions. They also found out a high incidence of respiratory diseases among the Lepanto miners who are not provided with protective masks.

Despite opposition by the people, Lepanto is hell-bent on expanding its operations in Buguias, Mainit, and Tadian, while Philex in joint venture with Anglo-American Exploration is expanding in Tuba. The MGB and NCIP have allowed Wolfland Resources Inc., a Swedish mining company, to conduct mining explorations on 499 hectares of ancestral lands of the Guilayon tribe in Magnao, Kalinga without the free and prior informed consent of the people in the surrounding areas. Various foreign corporations have already filed mining applications on 446,577 hectares or almost one-fourth of the entire Cordillera. The Arroyo regime has already approved operations on 13,167 hectares, and is rushing the approval of more.

The 1% of gross income from corporate mining which is supposed to go to the local government is actually rechanneled and packaged by the mining firms as community development projects which they dole out for propaganda effect. Furthermore, the P256 million share of Benguet from the taxes paid by Lepanto and Philex since 1992 has yet to be paid. Until today, the Cordillera provinces rank among the most neglected provinces in the country despite their huge contribution to the national wealth.

The peoples of the Cordillera will never willingly surrender their ancestral domain for such kind of "development" that violates their right to self-determination, deprives them of their land and life, and poisons and devastates the environment, all for the benefit and enrichment of the few who are in power and their foreign masters. Thus, the Arroyo regime and mining corporations are aggressively implementing a "social acceptability campaign" - a fancy name for propaganda to cover up the destructive effects of corporate mining, portray it as "modern, people-friendly, and environmentally safe" and deceive the people into accepting this. Failing this, the government will resort to militarization and brute force, as it is already doing in Mankayan and many other areas.

The only winners in the Arroyo regime's "development policy" are the imperialists, local comprador capitalists, and corrupt government officials, while the losers will be the Filipino people.

Therefore, the CPDF calls on the peoples of the Cordillera to prepare to wage fetad � the people's tradition of war mobilization � against the coming assault of destructive foreign mining corporations and for the defense of the ancestral homeland and life. Fetad shall unify the strength of each individual, each sector, and each community into an invincible force. The Cordillera peasants and workers who constitute the majority of the people should lead in the struggle, using all means � armed and unarmed, legal and illegal, open and underground. The tribal elders and leaders should lead in casting aside petty tribal conflicts and in forging inter-tribal unity against the common enemy. Instead of waging tribal war, the armed tribal warriors throughout the Cordillera can constitute themselves as community self-defense units. They can help by preventing the entry and by driving away mining surveyors and confiscating their equipment. The professionals and educated sector can help in articulating and projecting the people's struggle. Traitors who are conniving with the Arroyo regime and mining corporations must be exposed and condemned.

Fetad is the Cordillera peoples' response to mining aggression. It is their contribution to the national struggle to overthrow the corrupt self-serving system ruled by a few local oppressive and exploitative classes in collaboration with their imperialist masters. Genuine national industrialization, including sustainable mining, can only be achieved by overthrowing this centuries-old system and establishing a new system which truly represents and serves the majority of the people, especially the masses. Only then will the mining industry be truly owned, controlled, managed, and be of service to the Filipino people. Armed struggle, complemented by legal and other forms of struggle, is the correct path to national freedom, democracy, and genuine development.