E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.3 page 16 • The Macambol region in the municipality of Mati, Mindanao, has also been affected by mining activities. Irregular consultation procedures have been reported in order to obtain consent from indigenous peoples. They were promised an economic uplifting of the region and infrastructure projects. However, due to the hazardous impacts on the environment and the population, the indigenous people of Macambol resisted these destructive activities and oppose any further mining operations on their lands. • There have also been reports of displacement of indigenous peoples in San Luis, Bukidnon. The Manobo people, ancestral owners of tracts of land in San Luis, have reported that their land has been forcibly converted into large-scale agribusiness ventures, whose ownership was ultimately transferred to non-indigenous lowlanders. They have been reclaiming their traditional land through legal means since the 1980s, but to no avail. • In Surigao del Norte, one of the provinces of the Caraga region, numerous families have been displaced from their homes and fields, and their agricultural lands were destroyed as a result of open-pit mining operations in Taganito and Tinabigan. Thirty families of the Mamanwa tribe are still living under a concrete bridge, exposed to the harsh climate and the pollution. Despite their appeal to NCIP, their demands were not met. • Community leaders and even elected officials are openly offered financial inducements and other payments in exchange for their support. In Vizcaya Climax Arimco makes regular payments to barangay (local community) councillors. In Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, such payments are reported to have been offered to Community elders in return for their support. In this case elders were also offered one-off payments for their vote in favour of the project. In Vizcaya a councillor reports being offered substantial bribes to buy his silence in opposition to the company. • The operations of the Lepanto Victoria gold mine in Mankayan, Benguet province (Luzon), has disrupted the lives of indigenous communities in the area, who complain about serious environmental deterioration, health hazards due to the discharge of toxic wastes and tailings, disregard for indigenous land resource rights, non-compliance with the principle of free and prior consent, and disruption of traditional lifestyles and livelihoods. Pollution of the river, rice-paddies, destruction of fruits and cattle, and potable water shortage for indigenous peoples in the area were also mentioned. A dam with tailings had collapsed some years before, causing extensive damage, and the community fears that yet another dam might collapse, which would further impact the environment. The activities of the mining company were blamed for the recent collapse of an elementary school, which appeared to have been caused by ground subsidence as a result of quarrying to gather material for the raising of a tailings dam. The communities oppose the proposed expansion of the company’s activities in their area, and complain that the Government and the existing laws accord privileges to the mining enterprise instead of recognizing the rights of the indigenous peoples set forth in IPRA.