#title:The Mangyan struggle against Intex Mining is also the struggle of the Cordillera people<br>
@@@@@<h1>The Mangyan struggle against Intex Mining is also the struggle of the Cordillera people</h1><!-- Cordillera People's Democratic Front, Simon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan, Spokesperson November 24, 2009 </em><br><br>
The Cordillera People's Democratic Front denounces the encroachment of the Norwegian-owned Intex Mining into some 11,218 hectares of mostly Mangyan ancestral lands in Mindoro and declares this no different from the intrusion of mining companies into the ancestral lands of indigenous people in the Cordillera. The interests of the three mining firms Intex Resources, Agusan Petroleum, and Pitkin Ltd. cover 208,561 hectares or almost 20 percent of the land area of Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro. A similar case is the overlapping applications of big mining companies covering 1,172,573.82 hectares or 66% of the Cordillera's land area. Once again, the interests of the indigenous peoples have been sacrificed for the benefit of greedy multinational corporations and the corrupt Arroyo administration.<br>
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The questionable nature of the Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) issued by national government agencies in favor for the three mining firms replicates the issuance of same questionable FPIC favoring big mining concerns in Benguet, Kalinga and Abra despite strong local opposition. The 91 mining applications in Mindoro Island reveal the extent of how much land, mostly belonging to Mangyans, has been and will be handed over by Arroyo and her predecessors to big mining interests.<br>
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Intex's claim that the affected Mag-asawang Watershed area is not included in the list of "critical areas" shows the hypocrisy of mining firms -- for all watersheds are critical, and profit cannot pay for the lives of victims of future tragedies and the environmental destruction caused by wanton mining operations. The Mag-asawang Watershed irrigates about 50,000 hectares of ricefields and supplies potable water to Calapan City. Four Mindoro towns will be affected by the operations of Intex that are expected to produce 100 to 120 million tons of nickel and cobalt ore over a period of 15 to 20 years.<br>
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The fact that Mindoro is the fourth largest rice producing area in the country was of no concern to the Arroyo administration when it ruled in favor of Intex and other mining firms. In the past, the government often turned a blind eye when the tailings dams of mining companies in the Cordillera like Lepanto and Philex collapsed and destroyed with toxic wastes and mine tailings hundreds of hectares of ricefields and vegetable gardens downstream.<br>
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Militarization and violence is utilized to cow national minorities into submission and meekly accept the loss of their ancestral lands. As with the indigenous people of the Cordillera, the Mangyans have lived through various military atrocities. Scores have died and suffered during Gen. Jovito Palparan's reign of terror as task force commander in Mindoro.<br>
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The historical lessons of the people's struggles against the Chico River Dam Project and Cellophil Resource Corporation show that armed struggle is the key in stopping these anti-people, anti-environment and pro-imperialists projects. Not a hectare more! Let not the national minorities suffer further impoverishment and displacement in the hands of greedy mining interests. Armed resistance is the only path to freedom and defense of sovereign interests for the indigenous people of Mindoro, the Cordillera, and entire country. The CPDF calls for heightened unity and concerted armed action among tribal peoples in ousting mining and other multinational interests encroaching on ancestral land and trampling on the rights and lives of indigenous peoples. Let the guns and spears of the national democratic revolution terminate the ravenous encroachment of mining concerns. Fetad!<br>
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