11 MOUNTAINS IN ALL
One of the oldest settlements in Benguet province, Bokod is inhabited by 11,705 indigenous Ibaloi, Kalanguya, Ikarao, and Ikadasan. With a land area of 396.40 square kilometers, it is the second largest municipality in Benguet. It has 11 mountains, including Mount Pulag, which the indigenous peoples of Bokod consider sacred. (Mount Pulag’s peak rises 2,922 meters above sea level. It is a five- to seven-hour hike from the rangers’ camp in Bokod.)

Mossy forests and old-growth pine trees characterize the area. Bokod folk, however, are particularly fond of kadasan, a native hardwood that grows locally and is used in the foundation of homes here. Wild boar, deer, and the cloud rat can still be found in Bokod forests, especially those in Mount Pulag, along with various other exotic fauna, such as the whiskered pitta (Pitta koctri) and the Luzon water-redstrad (Rhyacomis bicolor) bird species.

Bokod apparently has treasures underground as well. Before a popular outcry shut down its exploration of the area in the mid-1970s, Benguet Consolidated Inc. had drilled more than 100 holes that indicated some 259 million tons of copper, gold, and molybdenum underground in Sitio Bobok alone. Subsequent geological surveys by the government affirmed the existence of valuable metals in Bokod.

Proponents of Proposed Mine Explorations in Bokod Source: MGB-CAR and NCIP-CAR (2008)
COMPANY	EXPLORATION PERMIT APPLICATION (EXPA)	ORIGINAL APPLICATION FOR PRODUCTION SHARING AGREEMENT (APSA) CONVERTED TO EXPA/APPROVAL	AREAS COVERED	COVERAGE (HECTARES)
Magellan Metals Inc.	EXPA 083	APSA 081 to EXPA 083 approved by MGB-CAR on September 20,2006	Sitios Cobabeng, Mangakew, and Bolo, of Barangay Poblacion, Bokod	973
Columbus Minerals Inc.	EXPA 084	APSA 025 to EXPA 084 approved by MGB-CAR on September 20, 2006	Bobok, Bokod	486
Al Magan Exploration Company	EXPA 081	APSA 037 to EXPA 081 approved by MGB-CAR on September 20, 2006	Bobok, Bokod	1,377

That precious metals such as gold abound beneath their feet is not exactly news to Bokod natives. Johny Fialen, who was born and raised in this town, estimates that Bokod has some 500 gold panners and small-scale miners. Gold panning has long been done along the Agno River in Benguet, where the year-round activity peaks right after typhoons. Gold panners fear, though, that large-scale mining would make the waters of Agno River sluggish from sedimentation and siltation, thereby threatening their livelihood.

Yet, having successfully stopped mighty Benguet Consolidated in its tracks, and with the protection provided to Bokod and Mount Pulag by a battery of laws and presidential proclamations, residents here were confident that the mining industry’s big boys would not only be kept out, they would also not even try to get a foot in.

And so residents say they were shocked when representatives of not one, but three, companies approached them in 2007, seeking their consent on the firms’ applications for mining explorations in Bokod. Says one resident here: “That was the first time we heard about the applications.”

THICK-FACED FIRMS
They were probably even more shocked to find out that two of the companies had apparently gone ahead and were already doing what one government official would later describe as “exploration-related” work without waiting for their response.

Told about this by the PCIJ, Mines and Geosciences Bureau‘s (MGB) Mining Tenements Management Division chief Leo Jasareno expressed surprise and blurted out, “We need to verify that kasi ang kapal naman ng mukha nila (because, boy, are they thick-faced).”

Jasareno said their office had not heard of such activities in Bokod, especially when MGB had yet to issue a permit. He added that if these had in fact been done, the two companies had committed “a crime — a violation of the Mining Act.”

By the time Jasareno was saying this, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples-Cordillera Administrative Region (NCIP-CAR) Director Amador Batay-an had already issued a cease-and-desist order to all the three firms keen on doing explorations in Bokod. Batay-an’s order was in response to a flurry of furious letters the Bokod folk sent to the regional offices of the NCIP and the Commission on Human Rights, as well as to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

In a recent interview with the PCIJ, Batay-an said the order was issued to all three companies to ensure that “all exploration activities” at Bokod would stop. According to NCIP-Benguet Legal Officer Severino Manuel Lumiqued, Bokod folk said those activities included surveying and “induced polarization,” which, one MGB regional official later explained, involves the use of specific equipment to determine whether or not there are minerals with pyrite (such as gold and copper) in the area.

'EXPLORATION PERMITS'
Documents filed at the MGB-CAR office show that Columbus Resources Inc., Magellan Metals Inc., and Al Magan Mining and Exploration Company (AMMEC) had each first filed an Application for Production Sharing Agreement (APSA) for three different sites in Bokod. In 2006, however, these APSAs were converted into applications for exploration permits or EXPAs.

Conversion and Assignment of Mining Rights Source: MGB-CAR (2008)
APSA APPLICATIONS	CONVERTED TO EXPA	DATE OF APPROVAL OF CONVERSION BY MGB-CAR	EXPA ASSIGNMENT	REGISTRATION (DEED OF ASSIGNMENT) AT MGB-CAR
APSA 025 (Comedis assigned APSA to Geodata on Oct. 2, 1997)	EXPA 084	September 20, 2006	Geodata assigned to Columbus on October 20, 2006	October 23, 2006
APSA 037	EXPA 081	September 20, 2006	Maintained by AMMEC
APSA 081	EXPA 083	September 20, 2006	Bolo assigned to Magellan on October 11, 2006 with royalty agreement	October 19, 2006

AMMEC is a Filipino-owned firm headed by Pastor Quinto Jr., who has other pending mining applications in the region. Both Columbus and Magellan, meanwhile, have 99.9-percent foreign equity. Both are also controlled by the Singapore-based Magellan Resources Pte. Ltd.; papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show them as having identical incorporators, directors, and officers as well. Interestingly, too, AMMEC and Columbus gave Magellan the authority to undertake their exploration for them once they secure the permits.

Residents and official documents point to Columbus and Magellan as the companies that had conducted the premature exploration activities. PCIJ tried to schedule interviews with representatives of both companies, as well as of AMMEC, but failed.

In an email response to PCIJ’s request for an interview, Peter Ronald Draper — an incorporator of both Columbus and Magellan and who has filed appeals on behalf of AMMEC with the MGB — said that “there really is nothing to talk about” because there are no mining operations yet in Bokod. He added, “The only field work that has taken place has been community-based.”