NCIP registers group; millions of mining royalties unaccounted

Itogon folk: ‘Big amount paid to high people in offices’ 

ITOGON, Benguet -- Members of communities affected by operations of Philex Mining Corp. here are questioning the quick issuance of Certificate of Registration (COR) to an organization called APSSOL by National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Cordillera Administrative Region regional director Atanacio Addog. 
    Addog, a lawyer, handed the COR last week to the so-called chairperson of the Council of Elders of APSSOL lawyer Johnny Wagis, former Vice Governor of Benguet.  
    APSSOL reportedly is a Kalanguya term which means “coming together.” 
    The COR will now give APSSOL the juridical personality to withdraw millions of royalty money which had been accumulating at the Banco De Oro.
    However, the IPS, a requirement to registration is still being documented by a technical working group which was reportedly formed by Addog himself.
    APSSOL is an Indigenous Peoples’ Organization (IPO) of people from the affected communities of Philex Mining Corporation’s (PMC) operation denominated as APSA (Application for Mineral Production Sharing Agreement) 102 in Tuba, Benguet. 
    It is the first and only IPO to receive millions of royalty money from a mining company in the region.
    Unfortunately, the royalty money had reportedly been mismanaged to the point that the IPO cannot even provide a report on where a bulk of the money had been going. 
    Stories from disgruntled community members say a substantial amount ended up as payment for “debt of gratitude (DOG)” to high people in offices nobody dared to openly name.
    It was also used to compensate claims of damages on land and properties, which was not supposed to be because the royalty money belongs to the community and the payment of claims is the responsibility of the company. 
    The Philippine Mining Act of 1995 stated that “royalty shall form part of a trust fund for the socioeconomic well-being of the indigenous cultural community.”  
    The distribution of claims was itself flawed as there was no guidelines on who should receive such. 
    This led to what some members accused as selective distribution:  “Adda ti nagadayo ti lote da idiay subsidence area nga nakareceive iti compensation; adda met ti kinnan jay subsidence area ti lote na nga awan pay naawat na (Some properties far from the subsidence were compensated while properties eaten by the subsidence were not compensated),” said a disgruntled member.
    Subsidence refers to the 98-hectare APSA 102 which is considered not fit for habitation.
    This mismanagement caused the cancellation of the IPO’s registration in 2013 by the Commission EnBanc to prevent it from further withdrawing any royalty money. 
    Measures were passed such as there should first be a Community Royalty Development Plan (CRDP), names of authorized people to withdraw and only after the Commission EnBanc shall approve the withdrawal through a resolution. 
    The release of the royalty became one of Gaspar Cayat’s focus when he assumed as NCIP Commissioner of CAR and Region 1 in April 2019.
    Suspicion on the quick COR issuance arose when Mila Bantasan, chairperson of the Council of Elders, was suddenly replaced by Wagis. 
    This was followed by a letter of Commissioner Cayat to then NCIP Chairperson Allen Capuyan that the CEB must deal only with Wagis as the IPO Chairperson which was not correct because there was an IPO chairperson in the name of Rafael Fernandez.  
Cayat and Wagis are accordingly very close friends. 
    Cayat openly supported Wagis during the election of president of APSSOL which Wagis lost to Rafael.
    Before Capuyan was changed as NCIP chairperson, a resolution was passed by the CEB giving authority to the Regional Director to confirm the IPS based from a documentation prepared by the IP/ICC.   
Wagis accordingly presented a draft IPS without the benefit of review by the validation team and the regional technical division of NCIP. 
    This became Addog’s basis to issue the COR.   
    Reports say some members of APSSOL are stubbornly demanding compensation despite explanation that the royalty should be used to fund projects identified in the CRDP. 
    One member is accordingly demanding 28 million pesos.