Minerva Chaloping-March, PhD. Social Science Researcher

Advocacy for Heritage Protection
In a voluntary capacity, I helped organise in 2014 the Citizen Advocacy for the Protection of the Maligcong Rice Terraces (CAP-MRT) to raise awareness and orchestrate proactive strategies to:

protect the indigenous village of Maligcong (my ancestral homeland in northern Philippines) from the adverse influences of commercial tourism, especially that the village is now a key tourist destination in Mountain Province (Cordillera region) owing to its extensive rice terraces system
respect the limited carrying capacity of the village. The mountains (particularly Mount Kupapey, also known as Mount Angtungfaw) and the rice terraces which have drawn large numbers of tourists can only accommodate small groups.
safeguard the fragile ecosystem of the village particularly from the threats of mining activities in all its forms and nature, whether legal or illegal, and whether corporate/industrial or “small-scale”/"artisanal".

Advocating for the declaration of the Maligcong Rice Terraces as a national heritage is our strategic means of preventing further degradation of the village’s landforms, forests, water sources, and all the living beings. Thus, in February 2015, CAP-MRT filed a proposal for the declaration of the Maligcong Rice Terraces as a national heritage at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the overall policy making-coordinating, and grants giving agency for the preservation, development and promotion of Philippine arts and culture.

While the NCCA has yet to act on the declaration proposal, the vigilance of the villagers with support of non-resident individuals who trace their roots to Maligcong caused the stoppage of illegal mining operations in sitio Fanikkar in October 2015. However, mining activities resumed in mid-2016 and carried on despite the issuance of a permanent environmental protection order (PEPO) by Judge Joseph Patna-an of Branch 35 of the Regional Trial Court of Bontoc, Mountain Province. The illegal mining activities ceased in Fanikkar but transferred to another location (this time, in Sitio Latang). Unfortunately, one miner died during one of the blasting operations. The continuing advocacy led to the closure of the mine in April 2018. The villagers continue to await a word from the NCCA.