Deep within the mines: The Mt. Diwalwal story

( First of three parts )

Roque Agton, Davao regional director of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP), calls for government security in Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo, Compostela Valley due to the increasing participation of indigenous communities in illegal mining conducted by the New People’s Army (NPA) in the area.

Strategic slavery

According to Agton, more than 60 percent of the NPA operating in Mt. Diwalwal is composed of Mandayas, B’laans and a disparate brood of T’bolis, Manobos and the controversial Tasadays, used as an army by the terrorist group to secure its illegal mining operations.

"The Mandayas and other tribes are directly involved in illegal mining in Mt. Diwalwal. Contradictory to what we hear from current news, the NPAs are the miners themselves," he said.

Agton confirmed that more and more indigenous people are being recruited by the NPA — to work directly for different mining firms. "The perverse involvement of tribal groups with the NPA and illegal mining operations is the thing that we from the NCIP fear most," said Agton. According to NCIP socio-economic assessment reports, for the past two years, an immense drop in the number of indigenous people has been recorded — due to NPA membership.

Based on the official census conducted in 1997, there were an estimated 25,757 residents in Mt. Diwalwal, clustered in 3,896 households or 5,439 families, and most of them represent a distinct ethnic identity. However, based on an informal NCIP survey in early 2003, a high number of deaths were recorded among T’bolis, Tasadays, B’laans and Manobos due to mercury contamination, assassination, rivalry, armed clashes or mining-related accidents.

"One of the reasons we’re considering why tribal groups engage with the NPAs is the fact of poverty in the area. At some point, we can say that the government has neglected many of our ethnic communities in the past. It’s the same reason why the NCIP calls for government security — open government security — to fix lapses in the past," Agton said.

The Pandanan connection

Meanwhile, STO-848, a government intelligence operator in the Mt. Diwalwal area, said the Mandaya-NPAs are also the rebels’ wing that takes charge of arms smuggling into Mt. Diwalwal through the Pandanan-Davao route with the help of Manobos, traceably from two disparate kinds of the Manobo tribal branch.

Based on research and analysis reports from the Department of National Defense (DND) and perimeter-files of the NCIP in Davao, the recruitment of tribal folk takes place in the remote mountainous areas of Mansaka, near Mt. Diwalwal, which government troops find it difficult to penetrate.

"For the past 20 years, Mandayas who are already members of the NPA have been controlling the smuggling, transport and delivery of guns and ammunition to mining areas in Mt. Diwalwal. With the help of Manobos from Tagum (originally based near the Tagum River to the confluence of the Salug and Liboganon Rivers), Mandaya-NPAs also monopolize mercury trade in Mt. Diwalwal, supported by Manobos from Compostela, where drop-off points would be to different big-time mining firms in Mt. Diwalwal’s top eight puroks," STO-848 alleged.

"The top eight buyers and consumers of smuggled mercury are mining companies operating in Puroks Limestone, Depot, Spar-Apex, Lower Balite, Balite, Patindol, Settlement Area and Pagibig," he further alleged.

According to A1-intelligence reports, STO-848 said, the smuggling of arms could be traced from its entry point in the Pandanan Palawan Islands. But when military surveillance is on high alert, the drop zones and entry points are from the South China Sea, and the arms are diverted to Oatungatun and/or Bulanbulan, Balabac Island. When in Palawan, arms are being transported, peculiarly to Puerto Princesa; the next known drop zone is already in the outbounding coast of the Tagum River in southern Davao.

This, according to STO-848, is the mystery that the Armed Forces is deeply trying to unfold in the past two years. "But somewhere along the way, Mandaya-NPAs have a strategy to pop it in Gerona and Tagum," he said. That, according to high-level terrorist assessment from the DND’s Research and Analysis Division, could be the link of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with the NPA when it comes to massive arms and ammunition smuggling. However, mercury materials are also vaguely imported from outside sources — more regular than the illegal arms influx — through the same route.

But according to STO-848, the NPA’s smuggling operations are very difficult to catch because "influential politicians who are connected with big mining companies are protecting them."

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(Malcampo and Caparas are from Manila and Monkayo, Compostela Valley, respectively. Sakai works for the National Commission on Indigenous People, and Galang for the National Historical Institute. Que is a member of the Ateneo Peace Debriefing Team in Zamboanga City.)