IP voices echo louder in Zambales upland projects amid development
(Last of three parts)
SAN MARCELINO, ZAMBALES—Long before renewable energy projects reached the uplands of this province, the mountains were already shaped by decades of extraction that altered landscapes, settlements, and the way communities relate to land.
In the 1980s, large-scale mining operations expanded across parts of the uplands, operating years before the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo reshaped the terrain once again.
When the mine ceased operations in the early 1990s, it left behind altered slopes and abandoned facilities—part of an environmental legacy that continues to influence how indigenous communities view large-scale development today.
Much of the uplands also fall within watershed and forest reserve zones, including parts of the Southern Zambales Forest Reserve, where land protection policies exist alongside landscapes already transformed by lahar flows, settlement shifts and earlier extraction activities.
For indigenous Aeta communities, these overlapping histories of mining, disaster and relocation are inseparable from present-day tensions over land use.
Liza Balario, Indigenous Peoples’ Mandatory representative in Barangay Buhawen, said the area’s current conflicts cannot be understood without revisiting its mining past and the impact of Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption.
She recalled that the 1991 eruption submerged rice fields in Barangay Buhawen—owned and farmed by non-indigenous residents—which later became Mapanuepe Lake, forcing families to relocate and adapt to upland farming.
Instability
Years later, she said former mining sites were found to contain iron-rich deposits with traces of gold, leading to small-scale mining activities in interior mountain areas.
“We are only speaking up now because their operations are expanding. They are already reaching areas that should no longer be entered,” Balario told the Inquirer.
She added that continued extraction has contributed to environmental instability, including landslides during heavy rains, and has deepened tensions over land access.
Concerns have also emerged over renewable energy projects in the area, including a proposed floating solar installation near Mapanuepe Lake.
Residents who staged protests said early consultations provided only general information, while preparatory activities such as tree clearing for access roads raised concerns in landslide-prone areas.
Jumaica Rose Bueno-Lira, 28, lamented that many residents were only given broad descriptions during initial consultations.
Northern Sun Radiance Inc., a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation, secured permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to cut 197 trees for an access road in Barangay Buhawen.
Petitions opposing the project have been filed as residents call for further consultations before expansion proceeds.
“We are not against development. We just want discussions to be completed properly before anything continues,” Bueno-Lira explained.
Alongside renewable energy concerns, communities continue to raise alarm over small-scale mining within ancestral domains.
In a Jan. 20 letter to government agencies, indigenous residents called for urgent action against what they described as ongoing illegal mining.
The residents said extraction continued despite earlier barangay agreements banning mining. Residents also said parts of the area fall within ancestral domain territory based on municipal records.
“Our ancestral land is not meant to be destroyed, but protected and defended for the next generation,” the letter stated.
Investigation
The complaints were endorsed to authorities through Evangeline Rodriguez of the Regional Development Council in Central Luzon, leading to a filing with the DENR-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
In a Feb. 16 letter responding to Rodriguez, DENR-MGB regional director Noel Lacadin said an initial investigation was conducted on Jan. 29 with local officials and indigenous representatives.
Lacadin said consultations were held regarding reported mining activities and earlier agreements among groups in the area.
“Any confirmed unauthorized mining activity will be addressed in accordance with existing environmental, mining and indigenous peoples’ rights laws,” Lacadin said.
But Balario said the field visit did not push through.
Balario added that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) was also approached but said mediation could not proceed due to jurisdictional issues.
The DENR and NCIP have yet to issue responses.
For indigenous leaders, the issue is not only about new development but unresolved legacies of extraction.
While renewable energy projects are part of the country’s clean energy push, communities say these are unfolding in landscapes already shaped by mining, disaster and displacement.
