The community of Barangay Bulalacao, Mankayan, Benguet condemned the renewed granting of a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) permit to Crescent Mining Development Corporation (CMDC). The project covers 534 hectares of ancestral land without obtaining ‘free, prior and informed consent’ (FPIC) from affected communities. The company was also granted an additional 300 hectares in the same area. The mining operation threatens more than 600 families who depend on farming their ancestral land.
CMDC’s permit expired on November 12, 2021. The law requires genuine FPIC from indigenous peoples and a certification of precondition for mining operations to continue. Instead of following the process, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP-CAR) allowed CMDC on December 9, 2021 to continue mining by issuing a false “certification” which the Mines and Geoscience Bureau-Cordillera Administrative Region (MGB-CAR) then used to renew CMDC’s MPSA.
Residents stated that NCIP-CAR’s certificate cannot replace FPIC and the certificate of precondition. For the state’s blatant deception of the public in allowing CMDC’s further plunder, the people launched a barricade in June 2022 to stop the operation. Because of this, the residents were red-tagged to force them to back down from their struggle.
The people of Benguet call on the MGB to revoke CMDC’s permit and to hold accountable the officials who issued the certificate to the company and those who red-tagged the residents.
