NEW LANAO DEL NORTE NCIP PROVINCIAL OFFICER UNCOVERS DEFFECTIVE DRAFT AGREEMEMENT BETWEEN THE ROGONGON TRIBAL COUNCIL AND MASADA MINING

ILIGAN CITY – New Lanao del Norte Provincial Officer of the National Commission on Indigenous People Jason Damasco has unearthed the defective draft Memorandum of Agreement between the Tribal Council of Rogongon and the Masada Resources and Mining Corporation.

NCIP -LDN Provincial Officer faces Tribal Leaders

The draft agreement is defective in form and substance where its first party is reversed from the correct form which suppose to be the first party is the community, the second party is the company and the third party is the National Commission on Indigenous People, Mr. Damasco said over the weekend.

“The content is not clear whether it is for exploration or operation, as a whole it is a scratch draft and be overhauled”, Mr. Damasco stressed.

Mr. Damasco was a provincial officer of NCIP in Misamis Oriental and assumed the same position in Lanao Del Norte in early January this year after the reshuffling of NCIP staff made all over region 10.

The draft agreement was reportedly prepared by one of previous staff of the NCIP in Lanao Del Norte, then submitted to the Regional Office, but lately sent back to the Provincial Office for verification. 

When the new provincial officer examined it, it ruled that the draft agreement was defective in form and upon verification from the tribal leaders it found out that even the substance is also defective in nature. 

Few years ago, some applications for mining in the Ancestral Domain of Higaonon Tribe in Barangay Rogongon were become dormant and the Philippine Mining Development Corporation (PMDC), a Government Owned Corporation took over the said mining tenements. 

Later said mining tenements were auctioned by the PMDC to interested investors for mining and Masada was one of the bidders who won the bidding for the mining tenements in Barangay Rogongon this city.