“The mountains are still here, because of the people’s struggle.”
This was the statement of an elder in Keystone, Ucab, Itogon, Benguet during the celebration of Cordillera Day on April 24, 2015.
Ucab is a barangay (village) of Itogon municipality in the province of Benguet. It has a population of 2,682 (2015 Census), with small scale mining and seasonal work in adjacent Baguio City as the main sources of livelihood. Itogon is the ancestral domain of the Ibaloi and Kankanaey tribes.
Barangay Ucab has a history of struggle. The more contemporary is our resistance to the open pit mining operation of Benguet Corporation (BC) in the 1980s. Benguet Consolidated Inc (BCI), as it was earlier known, began its mining operations in Itogon in 1903 after acquiring a mining patent under the American colonial government giving it the right to extract the gold, copper and silver resources in the municipality. Before the entry of BCI, our Ibaloi and Kankanaey forefathers engaged largely in agriculture supplemented by traditional gold mining.
Open pit mining
It was in Ucab barangay where Benguet Corporation began using the open pit mining method in 1981. It conducted blasting that destroyed houses and wounded a woman. In protest, we pressured the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to conduct an investigation. The DENR reported that the company did not warn the residents before the blasting and ordered it to pay damages to those affected to which the company complied. In spite of the Itogon residents’ strong opposition however BC continued its open pit mining. We began to notice some changes like movement of the land due to the strong blastings.
By 1989, BC began to retrench its underground mine workers as it shifted to more mechanized bulk and large-scale open pit mining operations. At its peak in the 1980s, the company engaged 8,000 miners in its three underground mines (Antamok Gold, Keystone and Baco-Kelly). In Keystone, Ucab, BC despite local opposition continued open pit mining in non-residential areas. Exhausting those areas the company was about to move its operation to Upper Ucab. Notices were issued to residents to vacate the area. The people held community meetings and mass protest actions against BCI. In one incident, furious villagers stormed the BCI field office carrying bolos and farm tools to protest the company’s operations.
In 1990 the people formed the organization Timpuyog dagiti Umili ti Itogon to strengthen the campaign against the open pit mines. They set up barricades, on and off, in BCI’s various open pit mines in Itogon. Ucab women volunteered to be the front lines in the barricades against armed Philippine Constabulary (PC), the state peace keeping force at that time. They were worried that it could turn bloody if men were at the barricades. The military nevertheless broke the barricades, arresting at least 200 Ucab residents. But this did not stop the villagers from standing united. Almost all of the Ucab villagers joined those arrested and marched with them to the military barracks located near the BCI field office. With the entire village in the barracks, the military eventually released the people they arrested.
The organization turned even stronger and more organized after that incident. All residents – men, women, children and youth – were one in defending their remaining land and resources on which their survival depends. The children of Ucab formed the Anti-Open Pit Mining Kids, performing plays and songs of struggle during the protest. The elders also tightened their ranks to reinforce community loyalty and shared responsibility.
At the height of the anti open pit mines struggle in 1992, Ucab became the venue for the regional celebration of Cordillera Day. It served again as Cordillera Day host in 2015, and on April 27, 2019, the annual event was celebrated in the adjacent Itogon barangay of Loacan, partly to commemorate the success of the anti open pit mining struggle in Itogon. Our continuing struggle is to reclaim our right over our ancestral land, which was titled as a mining patent by BCI. Under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, Benguet Corporation has an existing prior right (mining patent), but for us we have inherent right over the land our ancestors have occupied and possessed since time immemorial.
Super typhoon
Barangay Ucab’s resilience was again tested in September 2018 when super typhoon Ompong (international name Manghut) hit the Philippines. Ucab village experienced a deadly landslide which buried houses and people alive; 80 people died, some of whose bodies were never retrieved. Most of the victims were small scale-scale miners. It was a very bleak time for the people in Itogon. Many had to rely on donations and relief goods from local and international donors. The DENR ordered the closure of all mining activities in the area. Losing their livelihood, the villagers did not know where to get food for their families. The government offered livelihood programs for them to start all over again. Others went out of the village to try their luck as construction workers, service crew at restaurants and other odd jobs.
To the present, people in Itogon are not allowed to work in their small-scale mining tunnels unless they acquire a permit under the government’s Minahang Bayan program, which aims to legalize and regulate small scale mining. Among the requirements include an Environmental Compliance Certificate, simplified environmental plan, mining plan, safety and health plan which small scale miners find costly and hard to comply with. The villagers thus still sneak out and work in their small tunnels, even if illegal. Otherwise, their families would starve and they would be unable to support their children’s education and other needs.
Covid-19
After 3 years of surviving through “illegal mining”, another turmoil has set in: the COVID-19 pandemic which is affecting the whole country and the world. As a result, an Enhanced Community Quarantine or lockdown has been imposed in Itogon since mid-March and extended to mid-May.
In Proper Ucab, the lockdown has worsened food inadequacy, which is particularly serious for families who already lack access to regular paying jobs or agricultural land. Relief goods distributed by the government were only good for 2-3 days. We do not know when the Covid-19 threat will end. That is why there are still those who choose to go out to work, such as public jeepney drivers or vendors who sell their products, to be able to provide food for their families as they have no stable income.
Waiting for relief goods from the government is like waiting in vain. Thus, SAPPAT, an indigenous organization in Ucab, sought help through the Cordillera Peoples Alliance provincial chapter (KAIBANG) for relief assistance from the Serve the People Brigade-Cordillera Disaster Response (STPB-CDR), a CPA-led network that provides disaster relief and assistance. Some 220 households in Sitio Upper Ucab each received from the STPB-CDR a relief package of 25 kg. rice, dried fish and vegetables. The residents were thankful because these could last for weeks to augment the government relief of 3 kgs of rice and 6 small cans of sardines per household that can last only a few days. The relief package for the 220 households was provided by the Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera from a realigned budget of activities that were not implemented due to the lockdown with the approval of the Province of East Flanders and SOLIDAGRO.
When the STPB-CDR arrived in the community to deliver the relief goods, we could see how organized they were, making sure that everyone got a share. For those who were not included in the list since they are not members of SAPPAT and live in another sitio, the organization found ways to share what they had, with every member household contributing 1 cup of rice or whatever they had. With a strong sense of kinship, they share whatever relief goods they receive; if you have enough for your family, then you can share what you have with others without hesitation, ensuring no one suffers from food insufficiency.
Livelihood insecurity has long been our way of life since our ancestral land was robbed from us by BCI, and it gets worse when natural and health disasters occur. But we survive from whatever is left of our gold resource. It took a century of devastation by BCI of our once agricultural land. It will take a century to rebuild our agricultural livelihood as we strive to engage in small scale mining in the midst of our struggle to reclaim our ancestral land. Our struggle continues for the defense of our land, life and resources.
Blessy Eslao-CDPC staff