Key leaders during the press conference











Datu Maguel,IP leader, start the opening ceremony
with his traditional prayer.


IP Conferences-Baguio City:
March 12-14,2006

On March 12-14,2006, PhilDHRRA, Anthro Watch,Assisi Development Foundation, Haribon Foundation, Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA)LRC/KSK, FPE,KASAPI,PAFID and Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) has jointly organised a National Indigenous Peoples Conferences on Mining, held at La Consolacion Villa, Woodsgate Subd.,Camp 7, Baguio City, Philippines. The theme of the conference are 'Strengthen Ourselves Protect Our Land Sustain Life'. CPA is hosting this three-day days event. More han 200 indigenous peoples from over the country and support groups from national and international are participating in this conference. This gathering also serves as a forum of exchange of experiences, lessons, skills and knowledge on mining issues. According to Ms.Joan Carling,Chairperson of CPA, this conference will also be the occasion for participats to collectively express our sincere appreciation of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) position in calling for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995."Indigeneous Peoples look foward to a stronger partnership with the Catholic church in defense of life and our rights," she said.
The contents of this three-days conference are; Day 1: Opening ceremonies; opening prayer; keynote message; community presentation, overview of conference; press conference; global situationer on mining; open forum; national situationer on mining;present political landscape;community sharing;

What key leaders say about mining problems.....
' Large-scale mining is at the heart of every threat to the security and development of indigenous cultural communities. Indigeneous peoples in the philipines suffer cultral displacement,economic marginilization and serious human rights violations due to these mining activities. Many comunities resist being pressured into development projects which destroy their cultral values, we hope this conference by indigenous peoples will further strengthen their resolve to pursue their rightsful assertion of their culture and ancestral domains. We later hope to gain everyone's support for our campaign since this is an issue that affects, not just the bearers of our traditional cultures, but all Filipinos." said Jaybee Garganera, National Coordinator of PhilDHRRA.

Ms.Joan Carling from CPA, said" indigenous peoples are treated as second class citizens. Our rights are being violated with impunity by the government in support of mining corporation's greed for profit, as well as generating more source for corruption. We will not allow ourselves to be deceived by claims of development that will never happen. We shall persist in our struggle to defend our land, the very source of our life, culture and identity. This conference will then highlight our bases of opposing large scale mining and will also draw up our action plan for more concerted and sustained protest againts the mining law and policies of the government."
Day 2: Skills share session; The objective of this skills share session are to acquire lessons from the experience, tools, methods, skills or interventions that were presented; to establish the relevance and utility of the experience, tools,methods, skills or interventions in the local context (comunity); The topics of the presentation are; legal remedies againts mining; clean small scale mining; legal cliniquing; mine workers; situation and issues; health and environment impacts of mining; community action;monitoring and documentation; food security; agriculture and mining; human rights and mining; resources valuation; alternative livelihoods; site/community visit: mined out areas of Itagon and Tuba; reflection/sharing session; solidarity night.During the workshop, participants are discussing base on this guide question; what struck you most in the presentation?why is this skills (method or tool) relevant or important to our commnity? how can we use this skills (methods/tools) to advance our advocacy?

Field visit: Participants in this gathering also visit the mine-out areas of Itogon and Tuba,Benguet. Participats has exposed the desstruction and plunder of the peoples resources by mining companies. It also an occasion to share stories and express solidarity with communities in these areas. The place which I visited is Antamok. It is located between baragays Loacan and Ucab in Itogon. Antamok had been mined intermittently by the Ibaloy and Kankanaey since before the Spanish arrived here in 1620, it is now an abandoned open pit quite obviously carved out of the slopes of several mountains. It was operated by Benguet Corporation under American management from 1903 to 1974, then under Filipino management from 1974 to 1999. During my visit to this area, only a few members of te community still engage in small-scale mining because little ore is left at those depths that are accessible to their technology. Most of the households in both barangays Loacan and Ucab now engage in a mix of livelihood actiities predominated by agriculture and odd jobs in the city.

Day 3: Communities in Action: The contents of the last day are; recap; panel presentation on alternatives; policy framework; legislative agenda;sustainable small-scale mining; action planning; conference declaration; closing program. In the action planning workshop, participants were ask with this guide question; what is our endgame scenario? what do we want to see in the short-term ,in Dec 2006? what do we envision to see in the medium term, 2007?; what are the top 3 critical actions that we need to implement in our community?; what are the roles of the regional/national support groups in the local actions and campaign?

My observation in this three-day conference; Through this three-days conferences, first thing I observe that, Phildhrra able to gathered more than 200 participants among their network members through out Philippine region by working together with small number of steering commitee, second thing , the secretariat staffs have done good job, where they are work hard in the preparation and they are understanding each other to implement their work task. Staff and leaders from network members also really prepare the excibition on mining issues. Third thing, overall about the contents and input from this workshop to the participants, this three-day conference gave deep awarness and understanding to participants about the mining issues at regional and local level,the resource person have vast experience and knowledge, participants coming from diferent background and cultures, have a common plat form to share their local current situation and problems facing by their peoples and groups, and through this conference they able to come-out the common understanding on how to overcome the issues. PhilDHRRA as a secretariat for the steering commitee, able to coordinate with media through having press conference and explore the issues and problems about mining to the public. My suggestion are, in future action Phildhrra should work more closer and having regular meeting and dialouge with local partners and IP leaders at the ground level, example Phildhrra regional office should coordinate the issues at local level with the help and assstance of local support groups and IP leaders. The out put of this conference and the declaration made should look seriuosly, especialy on how we can put in action those ideas , it is just for creating declaration? or are we seriously want to help the IP problems at local levels? or how we want to devide our work at diferent level and exploit the diferent expertise? so, all this I think Phildhrra should have plan of action in future and I believe that Phildhrra has a experience and enough resources to do that. For my own development work, this conference give me great opportunity to share and gain new exposure on mining issues. I exposed to new issues in Dhrra development work, I have chance to talk and share with IP leaders about problems and issues their facing today. The field visit to mining area at Antamok, give me more exposure and knowledge about mountain peoples daily activity. Its really give impact to me about the situation of poor peoples in the mountain strugle for their family and life.