Repeal IPRA, Abolish NCIP for facilitation of unwanted mining in Indigenous communities

October 29 marks the anniversary of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), the very law that created the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). But nearly three decades since its passage, what has it brought to Indigenous communities? Instead of upholding the rights to ancestral land and self-determination, IPRA and the NCIP have become instruments for repression, deception, dispossession, and corporate plunder of ancestral lands.

As NCIP celebrates its anniversary, Katribu highlights the strong resistance of Indigenous Peoples across the country, like in Dupax del Norte, Mankayan, Itogon, Palawan, Mindoro, and Tampakan, who continue to defend their lands from large-scale mining and other destructive projects like renewable energy projects and plantations. These are the same communities seeking accountability from the NCIP, raising complaints of violated Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes, and questioning the law itself for being ineffective and even counterproductive in protecting Indigenous rights.

The communities in the North–mostly Indigenous Peoples, farmers, and small-scale farmers– have been continuously standing up against mining companies Woggle Corporation, Crescent Mining, and Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc. (ISRI). Through barricades, rallies, and legal pushbacks, the militant residents of these communities made it clear that corporate plunder has no place in our lands, not when it means the loss of life, livelihood, and ancestral territory. 

Despite widespread protests and support from other communities, organizations, and advocates for these anti-mining movements, the state remains favorably inclined towards corporations, and violations continue unchecked. On October 17, police were deployed to the barricade in Dupax del Norte after a Nueva Vizcaya court ordered the arrest of protesters. On October 1, armed security guards of Sangilo Mines, operated by ISRI, violently ransacked the pocket mines of local miners in Itogon, leaving local miners injured. Meanwhile, in Mankayan, the violation of the FPIC process remains ignored by the NCIP and other government agencies.

We reaffirm our call to repeal the IPRA and abolish the NCIP. Time and again, the NCIP has sided with corporations, issuing permits and certifications that facilitate land-grabbing and resource plunder. In the long history of mining and so-called “development” projects in Indigenous lands, the NCIP has always been at the scene of the crime. They act not as a protector of Indigenous rights, but as a facilitator for the entry of these projects. The interests of plunderous corporations and the NCIP are always aligned.

At a time when the masses are rising against the rampant corruption of government officials, we must also stay vigilant against the corporations that profit from the people’s land and labor. Bureaucrat capitalism remains the root problem that grips our nation, where corporations and the government are bound by greed, both seeking to enrich themselves from the resources of the common people.

Katribu lauds the steadfast defense of the communities of Dupax del Norte, Mankayan, Itogon, and Tampakan against mining. We also give importance to communities ravaged by projects. No amount of manipulation, intimidation, or violence from anti-people laws, institutions, and agencies will outweigh the concrete need of the people to survive and to protect their ancestral lands.

Defend our ancestral lands! Resist corporate plunder! No to mining!

Reference: Beverly Longid, National Convener