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Jill Carino, executive director of Cordillera
Women’s Education and Resource Center, describes the effects of
large-scale mining on women. Her case study is included in the
publication, Tunnel Vision: Women, Mining and Communities (eds.
Ingrid Macdonald and Claire Rowland, 2002) supported by Oxfam
Community Aid Abroad.
One effect is the deprivation of
ancestral land rights. The process of land registration was
institutionalized in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial
period between the 16th and the 19th century. During this time,
citizens could register their land through the Public Land Act or by
acquiring a Torrens Title. Such processes were alien to the
indigenous people who did not see the need to get a piece of paper
to prove their ownership of the land. When we became an American
colony, mining companies were able to acquire indigenous people’s
ancestral land under the Mining Act of 1872. This American law
legalized the accumulation of unclaimed mineral lands by American
individuals and corporations. Thus, indigenous land ownership was
not recognized. Today, the government continues to recognize Benguet
Corporation’s claims over the ancestral land claims of the
indigenous people, endorsing the company’s ownership rights over
the surface land, where the indigenous people live, and the
subsurface minerals.
Over the years, the community
made efforts to assert their rights and to reclaim their ancestral
land from the mining company. However, Benguet Corp. continues to
hold on to its mining patents and assert its claim over the land.
This is despite the fact that the company has ceased mining
operations in the area and is using the land for other commercial
purposes.
Another effect of large-scale
mining is the loss of traditional livelihood and the impairment of
the productive role of women. The destruction and depletion of
resources within mining communities have left only a few tunnels or
pocket mines that are slowly being depleted of their mineral ore.
Only low-grade ore remains which gives minimal returns for the heavy
work required in small scale mining. Without ore to process, female
miners have lost their traditional livelihood.
The women’s productive role in
agriculture has, likewise, been affected. Rice fields have dried up
due to lowered water tables caused by underground mining.
Agriculture in mining communities has become unprofitable because of
the lack of water, lowered soil fertility and the expensive
agricultural inputs required. The loss of traditional livelihood
opportunities has forced women, as well as men, to look for informal
work outside the communities. Many women, who are tied to the home
by childcare responsibilities, experienced increased domesticity and
economic dependence due to limited livelihood opportunities. Older
children are forced to enter the labor market in the city in order
to help their parents make ends meet.
The presence of large-scale
mining has increased the burden of women at home. Because mining has
dried up the natural water sources within communities, women have to
walk longer distances to the few remaining water sources in the
community and spend long hours waiting in line to fetch water for
drinking, cooking and other household needs.
Health problems are increasing
due to pollution created by mining. Respiratory illnesses, poor
sanitation and skin diseases are common especially among children.
Government’s failure to provide basic social services has
compounded the community’s inability to improve health standards.
Large-scale mining has affected
cultural practices within indigenous communities. The sustainable
and equitable practice of indigenous small-scale mining and its
accompanying cultural values and rituals are vanishing. So are the
indigenous practices of cooperative labor and reciprocal relations
associated with rice production.
Unemployment has resulted in
increased antisocial activities such as gambling and drinking. The
number of out-of-school youth has increased because parents
increasingly cannot afford to send their children to school. Many
families of overseas workers have broken down because of problems
related to the absence of either father or mother, such as
infidelity or child neglect. In addition, some women’s
organizations have been weakened and divided by the company’s
establishment of pro-mining women’s organizations that offer loans
and livelihood projects in order to attract membership. On the
whole, the previously tight-knit indigenous communities are
weakening as a direct result of large-scale mining operations.
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