RDC, miners urge DENR: Simplify Minahang Bayan

By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The Regional Development Council in the Cordillera approved a resolution urging Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to facilitate simplification of requirements and approval process for declaration of Minahang Bayan sites in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

The region’s policy-making body chaired by Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan in their recent meeting in nearby Baguio City, agree the  recent tragedy when Typhoon Ompong devastated the Cordillera Sept. 15 last year which resulted to 116 deaths mostly in small-scale mining areas in the mineral-rich town of Itogon, Benguet highlighted urgent need to regulate and assess the small-scale mining sector with the declaration of potential Minahang Bayan areas.

 Republic Act 7076 known as the People’s Small Scale Mining Act of 1991 required small-scale mining operations be undertaken only within declared people’s small-scale mining areas or Minahang Bayan.

SSM miners, mostly in Benguet earlier asked provincial and DENR officials to simplify minahang bayan rules. 

This, while RA 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) required individuals, groups and companies intending to exploit, develop and utilize the resources of the State within the ancestral domain of indigenous peoples or indigenous cultural communities to first secure the consent of affected folks through the free prior and informed consent (FPCI) process prior to pursuit of the activity.

                The resolution added small-scale miners found t difficult to comply with stringent requirements for approval of Minahang Bayan because of FPIC requirements considering pendency of 54 applications for declaration of Minahang Bayan sites pending in the region.

According to the resolution, small-scale mining is a significant source of livelihood in the Cordillera involving more than 20,000 pocket miners and their families who rely on the said industry as their main source of income over the past decades.

Earlier, the RDC-CAR initiated dialogues between concerned government agencies and other stakeholders including small-scale mining representatives to address issues in the small-scale mining sector wherein it was raised that primary hindrance to declaration of Minahang Bayan sites in the region was the requirement on the conduct of FPIC for affected IPs to give their consent for pocket mining operations within their ancestral domain.

The RDC-CAR tasked the DENR-CAR and its attached bureaus to conduct consultations with the NCIP-CAR to simply requirements for issuance of the FPIC as a requirement for approval of Minahang Bayan sites in the region.

In the absence of a declared Minahang Bayan site in the region, small-scale mining is considered illegal.

pocket mining is a significant source of livelihood and employment for numerous individuals in the Cordillera and as an underground economic activity, there is a dearth of information on pocket mining with estimates of workers employed in the sector ranging from at least 20,000 to 100,000.