Benguet IPs oppose new mining project on ancestral land

Benguet IPs oppose new mining project on ancestral land | Daily Tribune

BAGUIO CITY — Indigenous peoples from Barangay Bulalacao, Mankayan, Benguet, along with their village chief, expressed strong and continuous condemnation on August 27, 2025, of a mining firm's permit renewal to operate on their ancestral lands without their approval.

Barangay Bulalacao Chief Satur B. Anton, who also owns land where Crescent Mining and Development Corporation (CMDC) is drilling, stated that their water source was severely affected after the company began its operations. He said that the primary livelihood for his villagers is agriculture, specifically planting highland vegetables and other produce. "I do not want my village mates to have nothing to eat because their livelihood will perish due to extractive mining," he said in Ilocano.

CMDC, an Australian-owned company, operates in the municipality of Mankayan through a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) for a copper-gold extraction project.

According to Marlou Pablo, the Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) for Barangay Bulalacao, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) approved the renewal of CMDC's MPSA without going through the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) process. The mining company's MPSA expired after 25 years in November 2021.

In December 2021, to the surprise of the affected Indigenous Peoples (IPs), then-NCIP Cordillera Regional Director Atanacio Addog issued a certification giving the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) the green light to grant the MPSA renewal without the required FPIC from the affected IPs. Due to the renewal, CMDC continued its drilling activities in the ancestral domains of the Mankayan IPs.

The IPs set up a barricade to stop the operations in June 2022. This month, August 2025, the company has started bringing its equipment back. Anton said that drilling machines have been positioned in a nearby barangay. The village chief expressed his confusion as to how the equipment was brought there despite opposition from both his barangay and Barangay Guinaoang, where the equipment was placed. He added that the targeted mineral reserve is located directly beneath Barangay Bulalacao.

The Mankayan ancestral domain of the Kankanaey IPs currently hosts large-scale mining corporations, including Itogon Suyoc Resources Corporation (ISRI), Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation (LCMC), and CMDC.

Anton stated that due to many years of mining activities in their town, their water sources have been depleted and the river has become so acidic that they can no longer bathe in it.

The IPs are calling on the MGB to void the MPSA renewal, arguing that it is contrary to law and violates their FPIC rights. They also called on the NCIP to stop issuing precondition certificates to CMDC for its MPSA and to instead follow their mandate to listen to the voices of the IPs rather than favoring large corporations at the expense of their ancestral lands and the environment.

Pablo lamented that they have nowhere to go if their home is destroyed by extractive mining. "If CMDC drills through our land while other mines destroy the rest of Mankayan, and the land is completely ruined, where will we go, especially our children and their children?" he said.