Check on rice terraces urged to prevent mining
BAGUIO CITY—Town governments in Ifugao must make sure rice terraces in their areas are classified as part of national protected areas or watersheds to save them from mining, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said.
Amid concerns over a gold rush due to rising prices of the precious metal in the world, only two applications covered Hungduan town in Ifugao, out of 103 mine claims filed in the Cordillera, said Brent Pagteilan, a mining engineer at the MGB licensing and records division.
But the MGB has denied the 35,033-hectare application for mineral production sharing agreement filed by Horizon Resources Corp. and has referred to MGB Cagayan Valley the 38,142-ha application for another permit to mine pursued by Shipside Inc., a subsidiary of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co., said Lilibeth Bongsalo, MGB Cordillera mine claims examiner.
The Shipside’s application occupies more areas in Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya, “so we transferred the application to our [Cagayan Valley] office,” she said.
But the MGB survey office said Shipside’s application has been denied and is now the subject of an appeal.
Pagteilan said MGB was investigating the background of these companies because they were represented by only one lawyer, who was identified with another mining company.
“It is also plausible that their (applications) involve rice terraces in Hungduan,” he said.
As a matter of protocol, rice terraces would automatically be segregated from the mining area being staked, once processing takes place, said Orlando Pineda, MGB Cordillera director.
Only the rice terraces of Batad and Bangaan in Banaue town; Nagacadan in Kiangan town; and the terraced rice farms in the towns of Mayoyao and Hungduan are inscribed as World Heritage Sites.
Other terraces were properly classified as food areas by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, but Pagteilan said there may be rice terraces that government forest or agricultural inventories had missed.
“It is best if the local governments themselves go out of their way to make sure their terraces are properly classified,” Pagteilan said.
Almost all of the terraces in the Cordillera, including the stonewalled rice terraces of Mt. Province, are in various stages of decay and government has been hard put raising funds to save them, said Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
