Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

120 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
In the community meetings with Olympus and the NCIP, community
leaders rejected this “FPIC process,” since they had already refused
their consent going back to March 2007 (only a month after the drilling
had started). The communities complained that the process initiated by
Olympus and the NCIP was disturbing their daily agricultural activities, and
was a waste of time because they will not change their position. As such,
this second “FPIC process” was an imposition. It contradicted the basic
principle, procedure and intent of FPIC, since it did not uphold or respect
the communities’ previous collective decision. Olympus used the “FPIC
process” as a trap to later claim that, through the acceptance of some,
it had indeed, secured the communities’ FPIC. In fact it had violated it
when it had earlier explored and drilled in Capcapo without the necessary
permission. On top of this, the process had taken place under a climate of
fear and militarization.
Militarized Communities
The background of the meetings is that army “counter-insurgency”
operations were happening in the area, ostensibly aimed at the
Communist New Peoples Army (NPA). Elements of the 41st Infantry
Battalion and the 503rd Infantry Battalion Reconnaissance Company
shadowed members of the CPA and their local affiliates who were
invited by the community to monitor the FPIC process. They camped
under peoples’ houses if observers stayed there, following the teams
to meetings. In a community assembly in Poblacion on May 29, the
military took videos of the community folk. The following day, the
soldiers conducted a census and shot videos in Barangay Poblacion
without declaring a purpose. They also interrogated households as to
the organizations they belonged to. This angered the residents, who
prohibited further questioning and demanded to know the purpose of
the census, especially as it is not the job of the military to be doing this.
Census was also conducted in the militarized barangays of Lenneng and
Caoayan.
In June, the military harassed and interrogated the chairperson of local
group BALITOK (Baay Licuan Takderan Omnu a Karbengan), 29 Ernesto
“Lakay Aggoy” Quinto, who is also a respected elder in his village in
Lenneng. He is also the president of the local farmers’ association,
LEKITIFA (Lenneng Kileng Tingguian Farmers Association). Lakay Aggoy
was unjustly accused of being an NPA member, while he continued to
assert the legitimacy of BALITOK and LEKITIFA as peaceful civil society
organizations.