by Ben Serrano
BUTUAN CITY - The Manobo-Mamanwa Joint Tribal Council Conference Association today have requested the Congress particularly the House Committees on People’s Participation and the Indigenous Peoples to conduct congressional inquiry on alleged wanton neglect and violation of the indigenous people’s rights.
The group is the same group who unanimously passed a resolution in last November 21, 2008 general meeting in the presence of NCIP legal officer Atty. Gabriel Mapalo declaring NCIP-Caraga Regional Director Jose Dumagan, Jr. “persona nan grata”. They also called for Dumagan’s ouster or transfer.
They reasoned, Dumagan is not sincere on his duties and responsibilities to protect the interests and welfare of the depressed Mamanwa and Manobo tribesmen but only after his personal interest, irresponsible and violates or fails with his duties and responsibilities in applying customary laws and imposition of sanctions.
The tribes for years now they claimed have not been paid in their royalty fees by mining companies operating in their ancestral lands. They specifically pointed out the plight of the tribes in Tubay and Santiago town areas by which until now, the complained mining firm S.R. Metals Inc. have not yet paid them on their royalty fees.
But Dumagan denied the accusations saying he is trying hard to patch up problems affecting the indigenous people and unite the indigenous people in Caraga.
In their letter to Congress dated February 21, 2009 specifically to Rep. Guillermo Romarate, Jr. who is vice chair of the Congressional Committee on People’s Participation and member of the House Committee on Indigenous People, the group requested the solon to personally initiate a house inquiry.
The group which is an umbrella of all tribal associations of the Manobo and Mamanwa tribes claimed in their letter that they have issued several appeals in the past to different concerned government agencies and fast track their long over due complaints against S.R. Metals Inc. to fulfill the mining firm’s corporate social responsibility to the lumads after using their ancestral lands for their nickel mining operations.
But Datu Ebanta and Datu Mansusulog who are signatories of the letter request for house inquiry alleged S.R Metals Inc and a some mining firms operating within ancestral lands of indigenous people in Caraga Region have not fulfilled the promise until now.
The group challenged Romarate who is also a tribal Datu himself having been baptized as Higaonon Datu to look for the helpless plight of tribesmen in the region long suffering from dire poverty, illness and uneducated because of the alleged neglect.
Last December 22, 2008, more than one hundred New People’s Army rebels raided the S.R. Metals Inc office compound in Barangay La Fraternidad, Tubay, Agusan del Norte after they attacked the town’s police office carting a total of twenty one long and short firearms.
NPA spokesperson Maria Malaya in press statement claimed they raided S.R Metals Inc. office compound because of the alleged sins allegedly committed by the mining firm against the indigenous people.
But sources of the police, military, the mining firm itself and the local government unit claimed otherwise saying the rebels got irked when S.R. Metals Inc. allegedly gave only P100,000 or P50,000 cash representing revolutionary tax to the rebels days before the raid. The exact figure was not known until now.
The raiding rebels hogtied security personnel of the mining firm then ordered the Security Chief to accompany them in the mining area where expensive equipment are parked and there they torched Volvo Cargo trucks of the firm aside from burning earlier a Globe cell site.
In August 2006, 13 tribal leaders of the Manobo and Mananwa tribes who occupy the ancestral lands operated by S.R Metals for nickel mining signed a MOA with S.R. Metals Inc. President Francis Enrico Guttierez in the presence of local government officials.
But Tubay Mayor Fidel Garcia, Jr.. questioned the accord saying Datu Ebanta himself is not a tribe but is a Boholano himself whose family migrated to Santiago town. Garcia said Datu Ebanta was never a resident of Tubay.
The Catholic-led CCPD or Caraga Conference for Peace and Development brokered a talk last October 2008 to settle the issue and have caused S.R. Metals Inc to promise to pay before Christmas of 2008. The talks bogged down and until now no payment have been made.
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