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First Posted on Inside Mindanao: December 8, 2006

Gov't Procedures Viewed by Mindanao Indigenous Communities as Pro-Mining
By Ellen Red

Various indigenous communities in Mindanao have expressed their disapproval of the "Free and Prior Informed Consent Guidelines of 2006" released by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

"The FPIC (Free and Prior Informed Consent) makes it easy for companies, especially mining companies to enter into ancestral domains," Datu Tony Lumandong, a Higaonon tribal leader in the province of Misamis Oriental, said in his dialect during the recent gathering of Mindanao indigenous communities.

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, signed into law in 1997, defines Free and Prior Informed Consent as the "consensus of all members of the Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) to be determined in accordance with their respective customary laws and practices, free from any external manipulation, interference coercion, and obtained after fully disclosing the intent and scope of the activity, in a language and process understandable to the community."

In July, this year, the NCIP approved the "Free and Prior Informed Consent Guidelines of 2006".

Under the approved guidelines, the following shall undergo the Free and Prior Informed Consent process:

1. Large-scale development, exploration and utilization of land, water, air, and other natural resources within ancestral domains/lands;

2. Exploration of mineral and energy resources within ancestral domains;

3. Programs, projects and activities that may lead to the displacement and/or relocation of indigenous peoples;

4. Resettlement programs or projects by the government or any of its instrumentalities that may introduce migrants into ancestral domains whether permanent or temporary;

5. Management of protected and environmentally critical areas, and other related joint undertakings within ancestral domains;

6. Bioprospecting activities;

7. Industrial land use including the establishment of economic zones;

8. Large-scale tourism projects;

9. Large-scale agricultural and forestry management projects; and

10. Other activities similar or analogous to the foregoing.