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| DND confirms AFP role in big mining interests in AbraDIEGO WADAGAN
Spokesperson
Agustin Begnalen Command
January 20, 2009
Even the devil can speak the truth. In a news article last 09 January 2009, DND Secretary Teodoro said, "Security forces are targeting dismantling guerrilla bases of the communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels around mining areas in Compostela Valley on the southern Mindanao Island and northern mountains in Abra." Teodoro's pronouncement belies the repeated denials of the 41st IB and the 503rd Brigade that their deployment in Abra has anything to do with ensuring the implementation of large-scale mining projects funded by big business groups in cahoots with local bureaucrats.
The people of Abra clearly oppose the intrusion of big mining corporations into their ancestral lands. In the municipality of Baay-Licuan, the people overwhelmingly rejected through collective mass actions and a referendum the mining exploration permit granted by the DENR to the Olympus Pacific Mining Corporation Ltd – Abra Mining and Industrial Corporation. Provincial fora and mining conferences sponsored by the Catholic Church and progressive people's organizations have likewise shown popular opposition against big mining interests.
However, the Abra provincial government entered into a deal with the Rio Dorado mining company and signed a 25-year Joint Venture Deed purposely for "extracting sand and aggregates from the Abra River Basin for export markets" and "for large-scale gold, copper and other mineral exploration and mining development in Abra Province." The Joint Venture Deed was signed on 28 July 2006 by then Gov. Vicente Valera and Peter Just of Melbourne, Australia. Last October 2007, Governor Eustaquio Bersamin signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Rio Dorado that stipulated specific and detailed agreements for the implementation the project. Rio Dorado will own 85% of Joint Venture Company that will be formed.
Subsequently, the 503rd Bde relocated its headquarters from Ilocos Sur to Abra and the 41st IB established its headquarters in Baay-Licuan evidently to quell the people's growing protests against big mining interests. The combat, intelligence and civil-military operations of these units are focused on mountainous areas of the province where the people engage in small-scale mining activities, and where mining applications of big companies are pending or have been approved. The propaganda and psywar operations of the 503rd Bde and the 41st IB even go beyond Abra's boundaries where they continually malign the revolutionary movement "as operators of illegal small-scale mining operations and agitators against mining development projects" ostensibly to cover up their role as attack dogs and security guards of destructive, exploitative and anti-people mining projects.
Sec. Teodoro has the gall to accuse the NPA of operating small-scale mines as a "business that is no longer in line with ideology." He should be ashamed of himself for lying so blatantly. The NPA upholds the interests of the peasant masses and the indigenous peoples of Abra. It implements and supports mass-based sustainable development projects that are environmentally sound and respectful of the people's culture and their right to self-determination. The NPA will exert all efforts to protect the right of the people to their ancestral domain and thwart the plans of foreign and domestic entities to appropriate the natural wealth that rightfully belong to the people.
Sec. Teodoro should know better. The Cordillera people and the NPA have a history of valiant and victorious resistance against large-scale, exploitative and oppressive projects like dams, mines and logging consortiums. Militarization and deception can never defeat a people fighting for their land, lives, resources and collective rights.
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