Five Mamanwas missing since start of anti-mining barricade

Urgent Appeal: Five IP human rights defenders still missing since first day of anti mining barricade last January 29, 2009

The Philippine government must immediately look into the case of five Mamanwa tribesmen who remain missing since they disappeared on the first day of the barricade their community put up to block mining roads in their ancestral domain last January 29 in Barrangay Taganito, Claver, Surigao del Norte, Philippines.

The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center – Kasama sa Kalikasan/FOE-Philippines (LRC-KsK) calls upon the Arroyo government to exert all its efforts in locating the five IP protesters and put to justice whoever caused their disappearance. In disappearance cases every minute counts, all concerned government agencies and personnel must be mobilized in order to protect the lives of these five Mamanwa community members.

LRC-KsK notes with concern the growing list of indigenous peoples victimized by human rights violations that have been perpetrated with impunity under the Arroyo government – especially that the targets have been IP community human rights defenders.

The 400 Mamanwa community members barricaded the mining roads connecting the mining site to the local seaport to protest decades of continued mining operations by four mining companies in their ancestral domain without the consent of the community, nor just compensation to the community. The five missing Mamanwa protesters went to look for food for the barricade after they helped put up makeshift shelters, they were not seen again even after a search conducted by community members.

The setting up of the protest barricade was known to the local police since they were informed of by the community last December that they were driven to this after repeated attempts of sending out notices of termination of mining operations as well as demands for just compensation proved futile.

LRC-KsK demands that the Arroyo government do away with its obsession for mining generated revenues in the face of overwhelming rejection of IP communities who have long borne the brunt of the destruction, displacement, discrimination and disempowerment that mining operations bring with it.

We support the Mamanwa community as they continue with their barricade in their stand for their rights against destructive development projects and undemocratic policies.

SURFACE THE MAMANWA FIVE!!

contact person: Romel Cardenas de Vera
LRC-KsK/FOE Philippines
fhfmel.devera@lrcksk.org

Moving Mountains: Mamanwa tribe struggles against mining

The Mamanwas are a group of indigenous peoples in northeast Mindanao. Considered as a "lumad" group, they did not convert to Christianity or Islam and are among the poor marginalized upland communities in the Philippines. As the mountains of the Philippines are rich with mineral deposits, these communities are displaced from their ancestral lands as mining firms scramble for precious ores.

Photo from Mindanao Magazine (http://mindanao.com/blog/?p=3366)

Mamanwa tribe now on their 2nd week of "human barricade" vs mining firms in Taganito
Monday, 09 February 2009 11:21

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 February) -- Some 400 members of the Mamanwa tribe are now on their second week of staging a "human barricade" along the highway of Taganito in Claver, Surigao del Norte, demanding their right to one percent royalty from the gross output of the operations of four mining firms there.

Mamanwa members earlier sent notice of termination to the mining firms, informing them they will no longer allow mining in their ancestral lands, claiming the firms failed to pay their one percent royalty fees since 1997.

The barricade started on January 29.

The four firms, Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC), Oriental Synergy Mining Corporation (OSMC), Case Mining Company (CMC) and Platinum Group Mining Company (PGMC), are operating on the Lumads’ 48,678 hectare ancestral land in barangays Taganito and Urbiztondo. The land is covered by a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT).

In a statement on February 4, Datu Joel Buklas of the Taganito Mamanwa Association, said, "Today, 4 February 2009, is our seventh day of human barricade along the highway of Taganito, Claver, Surigao del Norte to demand before the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on our share agreed for allowing the mining companies to ruin our lives and our ancestral domain."

The statement noted that TMC has been operating in their ancestral domain since the 1960's and “got a new contract to operate for another 25 years in the red mountain of Surigao del Sur.”
“The moving truck loads of nickel ore is a regular scene for motorist passing along the Claver highway.

Literally, the red mountain of Claver is moving inch by inch every day.

Read the original post here

Dolphins beached in Bataan, Philippines

Dynamite eyed seen in dolphin stranding
By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:31:00 02/11/2009
Filed Under: Fishing, Animals

MANILA, Philippines -- Experts are looking at dynamite fishing as a possible reason for the beaching of some 250 dolphins in Pilar, Bataan, on Tuesday.
Environment Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza said he asked Bataan Gov. Enrique “Tet” Garcia in a meeting at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources offices in Quezon City on Wednesday whether there was dynamite fishing in his province.
“I asked him [Garcia] and he confirmed it. He also said he was battling this illegal activity,” Atienza told reporters.
Dr. Lem Aragones of the University of the Philippines Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology, told reporters the melon-headed whales of the dolphin family could have been led astray by the leader of their pod.
In turn, the leader’s acoustic system, which serves as its guidance system, might have been impaired.

Read more here
Bataan residents save dolphins :see the video here