Salute to anti-mining leader Badang Isidro

Aling Badang 

By ANABELLE E. PLANTILLA

In celebration of Women’s Month, I want to write about Aling Badang.  I met Librada “Badang” Isidro, 46 years old, last December during her group’s hunger strike against the nickel project of Intex Resources Philippines in front of the DENR office. She is from the Alangan Mangyan tribe, which inhabits the areas of Naujuan, Victoria, San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro.

A wife and a mother to five children, she does the kaingin for a living and is very active in her role as the Mangyan community development worker at the Mangyan Mission.  Aling Badang reached second year high school.

When asked why she joined the hunger strike she said, “Para maisalba ang Mindoro sa kalagayan ng mining at maisalba ang kalagayan ng mga katutubo. [To save Mindoro from the mining situation and to save the situation of the indigenous people.]”  

As to her being a woman hunger striker, she stated, “Para mapakita na ang kababaihan ay meron ding paninindigan at maraming nagagawa. [To show that women also stand on principles and can do a lot of things.]”  However, she said that had her family known that she was going to be involved in the hunger strike, they wouldn’t have allowed her. 

She further explained, “Ginawa ko iyon para sa inyo, gusto ko pagdating ng araw ang mga apo ko ay may makikitang magandang kalikasan. Ayokong sisihin ako ng apo ko na wala akong nagawa. [I did it for my grandchildren, (because) I want my grandchildren in the future to still be able to see the beauty of nature.]” 

Aling Badang believes that women should be at the forefront of an advocacy because they are respected. The presence of women advocates deters physical violence. Mindoro island boasts 10 important biodiversity areas (IBAs), one of which is the Mts. Iglit-Baco area, one of the Asean Heritage sites.  In these IBAs can be found the endemic or unique tamaraw, the Mindoro bleeding heart pigeon, the Mindoro hornbill and the estuarine crocodile, to name a few.  

Also found off the island of Mindoro is Apo Reef, the largest and best preserved atoll-formed reef (Haribon/BirdLife 2001) and one of the best dive spots in the country.  

Aside from her being in the community as an advocate and as a development worker, Aling Badang also talked about her household responsibilities. Women are effective time managers; they can do both farm tasks and household chores, including child nurturing.  At times, they also help augment household incomes by performing odd jobs or by selling farm produce. 

There are also a lot of women like Aling Badang.  Based on a paper by Vernie Diano presented during the International Conference on Women and Mining, women have actively participated in local, national and even international levels of struggles. Indigenous women in the Cordillera and the rest of the country have historically joined their people’s spontaneous and later organized actions. They are the negotiators and when the mine representatives don’t budge, the women use their collective might to drive the prospectors away. They bare themselves (Cordillera experience), a signal that there is no more negotiation to do and the mine representatives better leave or they never see another day.  

They are in the forefront of human barricades as displayed by women in Itogon and Mankayan, when the mining companies came to flatten their lands and bulldozed more of their communities. They join delegations to government agencies to whom they hand their petitions or complaints.  

In commemoration of International Day of Indigenous Peoples in August 2002, women from the mining community of Mankayan, Benguet, joined the protest in front of the huge building of Lepanto Mining Company and spilled the toxic tailings of Lepanto in front of the company’s main office.  It was a symbolic demonstration to belie Lepanto’s claim that its tailing ponds are safe and free from so-called toxic waste.

When asked about her activities after the hunger strike, Aling Badang said, “Tuloy ang pag-oorganisa sa 
mga katutubo upang ipaglaban ang prinsipyo, paninindigan, dignidad na di kayang pantayan ng salapi.

orgsus@haribon.org.ph

Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/13263-aling-badang 

 Published by The Manila Times