Palawan tribe leaders, NCIP heads in mine deadlock

‘ NATIONAL Commission on Indigenous People ( NCIP) officials admitted responsibility in the negligence of a field-based investigation (FBI) in the consultation process that has delayed the go-ahead for mining operations in Brooke’s Point, Palawan.

NCIP Commissioner Dionesia Banua who also represented Chairman Zenaida Pawid made the admission last Monday in a meeting called by the Ombudsman aimed to amicably settle the rift between Palawan tribal leaders and NCIP commissioners earlier charged for inaction on the result of the consultation approving mining operations in the Palawan town.

Tribal leaders charged Pawid and Banua before the Ombudsman last November for violation of the AntiGraft and Corrupt Practices Act and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for Government Officials arising from failure to carry out the result of the consultation on mining operation in the villages of Maasin, Ipilan and Mambalot.

The NCIP officials’ failure to act on the result of the consultation has grossly disadvantaged the indigenous people economically and violated their mandate to work for the welfare of their constituents especially on actions presumed to be regular as in FPIC, tribal leaders said.

NCIP officials asked the tribal leaders to withdraw the graft complaints while standing firm on their resolve to conduct a new free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process, which the indigenous chieftains dismissed outright.

Banua blamed the absence of an FBI, after the indigenous leaders accused her that she was giving them a run-around on the go-ahead for mining operations.

Banua told the tribal leaders that the NCIP should be blamed on the negligence. She said the Commission has already sent out field investigators to the villages of Aribungos and Barong-barong to conduct the same for compliance.

The tribal leaders dismissed Banua’s claim on the absence of FBI as a flimsy excuse saying that the NCIP could not conduct the FPIC without the FBI result because it was a requirement. An NCIP officer said he was part of the group who conducted the FBI and that the Palawan provincial office kept the result.

If indeed the FPIC was undertaken without the prior FBI, NCIP commissioners who ordered the FPIC in the impact barangays and Provincial Director Roldan Parangue for Palawan could be held liable for gross negligence, the tribal leaders said.

Banua, too, being the Regional Director for Southern Tagalog at the time when the FPIC was conducted allegedly without an FBI could as well be held liable for the same offense, they added.

The tribal leaders said Banua and Pawid should be reminded that NCIP decided on a 4- 3 vote in August 2011 to issue the certificate of precondition for Macroasia.

More than 800 families approved of mining operations in their areas out of some 1,000 registered indigenous families in impact barangays of Maasin, Ipilan and Mambalot, as per certification of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.