Indigenous
Rights in the Philippines
Stand with the Igorot People of the Cordillera
- Steve Rutchinski -
 
Protest
against the entry of energy projects and large-scale mining
applications in the Cordillera, led by Indigenous women in Baguio City
on the occasion of International Working Women's Month, March 9, 2020.
The Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA) has launched an
international campaign to gather support for the almost 50-year battle
of the Indigenous Igorot
people to assert their Indigenous
and hereditary rights. Canadian mining companies are amongst
those accused of widespread abuse, of causing environmental
degradation and supporting killings in order to continue their
exploitation and theft of the mineral riches of the Philippines
that belong to the Indigenous and working people.  The Philippines
is the world's fifth most mineral-rich country with reserves estimated
at more than U.S.$1 trillion in
gold, silver, copper and zinc. Under the Philippine Mining
Act of 1995, foreign mining monopolies are provided
"incentives" such as paying less than five per cent royalties and no
taxes, along with land ownership rights for more that 25 years with the
possibility of extension. Armed Philippine military support
their
theft and plunder.
Canadian mining monopolies make
up close to 20 per cent of all
mining operations in the Philippines. They have a history of
forcible displacement of the Igorot people of the Cordillera in
Luzon, the Lumad of Mindanao in the south and of others from their
hereditary lands. Barrick Gold, OceanaGold, TVI
Pacific Inc. and other Canadian mining
monopolies are among those enabled to act with impunity against
the Indigenous people of the Philippines. Since the Rodrigo
Duterte government came to power in June 2016, the Philippine
regime has undertaken an aggressive plan to exploit mineral
resources. U.S. and other private financial interests, working in
tandem with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, are the
main forces behind "developing the mining sector" in the
Philippines. Canadian, Chinese, U.S. and Japanese private mining
interests have expropriated fabulous wealth from the Philippines under
the Duterte
regime. At the same time, since coming to power, the Duterte
government has been responsible for the deaths of close to 200
Indigenous and other land defenders.  The Canadian
government legitimizes the activities of Canadian
mining monopolies declaring they are operating within the law in
the Philippines, ignoring what these laws are and who they serve. The
Trudeau government has asked the office of the Canadian
Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) to investigate
"claims of alleged human rights abuses arising from the
operations of Canadian companies abroad in the mining, oil and
gas, and garment sectors." Furthermore, CORE has no power to
compel any Canadian monopoly to co-operate and has yet to
undertake a single investigation since it became operational in
2019.
The Cordillera People's Alliance is a
political alliance of
more than 120 organizations. The Indigenous Igorot are located on
the island of Luzon in the north of the Philippines. They are
resisting escalating encroachment, occupation and plunder of the
mineral resources of their lands by global mining monopolies.
TML Weekly stands with the Indigenous
Igorot people and
supports the Global Pact to defend them and the riches which
belong to them on the Cordillera. The appeal of the
CPA can be found here.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 38 - October 10, 2020
Article Link:
Indigenous
Rights in the Philippines: Stand with the Igorot People of the Cordillera - Steve Rutchinski
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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