llegal mining rampant in Subanens’ ancestral domain area in Pagadian City

llegal mining rampant in Subanens’ ancestral domain area in Pagadian City

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, March 30 (PNA) – The Subanen Indigenous Peoples (IPs), through a resolution, requested the concerned agencies of government to investigate rampant illegal mining operations within their ancestral domain area.

The IPs known as the Pikumpongan Subanen Gataw Tebed Association, Inc. (PSGT) said the illegal mining by small-scale miners are taking place in Barangays Deborok and Lourdes, this city.

Timuay Braulio Anlimon, PSGT chairman, said Monday the mining operation is in violation of Republic 8371 known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 and R.A. 7942 known as the Philippine Mining Act of 199.

Anlimon named the group that is allegedly mining illegally within their ancestral domain area as the newly-organized Zamboanga del Sur Small-Scale Mining Cooperative (ZSSMICO). He said the members of the cooperative are non-Subanen IPs and do not have legal right to mine within the PSGT ancestral domain, which stretches from this city up to the nearby towns of Labangan and Sominot.

He said the resolution requesting to investigate the rampant illegal mining within their ancestral domain was adopted in a meeting Friday by the PSGT Council of Elders.

The resolution was addressed to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of Justice (DOJ). (PNA)
FPV/TPGJR/HIROHITO D. CADION