Cordillera Day

The 35-kilometer road to Lacub, Abra winds up, down and around steep mountainsides starting from the Baay Licuan town boundary, 450 kilometers away from Manila. It has no shoulder safeguards and no road signs.

When it rains, the road turns muddy and dangerously slippery.

I went to Lacub last Monday to speak at the 27th annual observance of Cordillera Day, jointly organized by the Cordillera People’s Alliance and the party-list Katribu, held at the village center of Buneg, the largest of the town’s six barangays and 13 sitios.

Over 2,000 people attended the April 26 opening program. 

An important activity took place on the second day. Representatives of the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace negotiating panels’ reciprocal working committees on social and economic reforms conducted a joint public consultation, as part of preparations for the formal peace talks in Oslo, Norway in June.

The consultation, the government team remarked, was a highly educational experience.

Lacub’s population is hardly 4,000; its 295.3 square-kilometer land area is mostly mountains and valleys. Why hold the Cordillera Day 2011 in such a geographically isolated, government-neglected town?

One reason is that the people of Lacub have etched a “glorious history of resistance” which the participants aimed to highlight, honor, and derive inspiration from. The other reason is to express solidarity in the current struggle against large-scale mining.

Thus, the theme: “Live out our glorious history of struggle! Fight for land, life and honor!”

The Tinggian people of Lacub are proud of their long tradition of defending their right to land and life. Not surprisingly, it was in Lacub that the New People’s Army in Abra started in the early 1970s.

During the Marcos dictatorship, Lacub provided the nerve center of the victorious popular opposition to the Cellophil Resources Corporation project to log the forests of Abra and parts of the Mountain Province, Kalinga, Apayao, Ilocos Norte, and Ilocos Sur.

Along with the successful popular resistance to the Chico River dam project — marked by the martyrdom of Tinggian leader Macli-ing Dulag that is commemorated by Cordillera Day - the anti-Cellophil struggle generated wide national and international support.

Today, the people of Lacub are resolutely resisting the entry of large-scale mining firms into their 14 small-scale gold-mining sites. They specifically oppose the exploration-cum-exploitation plans of Golden Lake Mineral Resources, Titan Exploration and Development Corp., and other large miners that have staked claims in Lahug.

The people are resisting not only their displacement from the mines, which they have been managing and conserving for themselves using traditional ways. More importantly, they want to prevent large-scale mining operations from devastating the environment, their land and other livelihood resources, as in Tuba, Itogon, Tublay, Kibungan, and Mankayan in Benguet province.

Twice in recent years, the Buneg community stopped a local warlord from seizing their mining sites. A significant turn in these united actions is that one section of the local warlord’s clan has stood up against him in defense of the community interest. 

Still the people are up against the national and local governments’ stand on the issue.

The national government has opened 49 percent or 196,094 hectares of Abra’s total land area (397,555 hectares) to mining applications by large local and foreign mining firms. Abra Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin, Lacub Mayor Estelita Bersamina, and Vice Mayor Leo Barona publicly support large-scale mining operations. 

The poor state of the road to Lacub described above has become part of the issue. As a come-on, the owner of Golden Lake Mineral Resources has reportedly offered to improve the road and to build a bridge for vehicles across the Malanas River. (Now motor vehicles have to cross the river bed to get to Lacub poblacion.)        

At the same time, the people have to contend with heightening militarization, which they suspect is intended to protect the large-scale mining projects. The Philippine Army has long maintained big detachments in three towns close to Lacub: Langangilang, Baay Licuan, and Malibcong. From time to time it has fielded platoons in Lacub for counterinsurgency operations.

Last April 17 the Army deployed a detachment in the midst of Buneg’s residential area. At lunch break on April 27, a community leader led a group of us to where the detachment was set up. We saw a few of the soldiers lounging in the cellar of a house.

During the public consultation, the community leaders asked government peace panel member Ednar Dayanghirang to explain why the detachment was assigned there. They demanded its immediate withdrawal. It was pointed out that positioning a detachment within the residential area violates the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).  

After making a call, Dayanghirang informed the assembly, “Here’s the answer. The detachment is deployed as part of Oplan Bayanihan.” 

He was referring to the AFP counterinsurgency plan under the Aquino government. His body language indicated that he couldn’t do anything about their demand.  

Indeed, a rough and dangerous road still lies ahead for the people of Lacub and the entire Cordillera. But, as in the long-ago struggle against Cellophil, they are confident they’ll prevail.