! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Small-Scale Mining on Mt. Balabag: Examining Class Dynamics and! Socioeconomic Mobility ! Alexie Z.N.! Felipe A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters! of Arts ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Graduate Program in Geography York University Toronto,! Ontario ! September! 2015 ! © Alexie Z.N. Felipe, 2015 ABSTRACT ! ! Mt. Balabag in the province of Zamboanga del Sur (Mindanao, Philippines) was the site of lucrative small-scale mining (SSM) from 1994 to 2012. This research inquires into the effect of SSM on the production of class and on capital accumulation during its operational period and beyond. The miners were a mix of indigenous Subanen and Filipino migrants who all came from rural agricultural backgrounds. There has been research implying the economic benefits of SSM to rural peoples of the Global South, and on Mt. Balabag too miners did see a significant increase in earnings relative to their previous agricultural livelihoods. However, in the long term the influx of economic capital did not translate into widespread socioeconomic mobility for the majority, or even a significant minority. When SSM came to an end in late 2012, so too did the improvements it provided to most involved. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ! ! My unending thanks go out to the very many people that helped me not only with this research, but also with grad school itself. These past two years have been both a difficult and rewarding experience and I could not have achieved this work without the support of many people and organizations. At the top of the list are my to my parents who have shown me nothing but support over the years. Thanks also to the Filipino social justice organizations that helped spark an interest in Philippine studies and helped connect me to various people and organizations in the Philippines to support my various projects in the past decade. And thank you to professor Philip Kelly, who I first met at Filipino-Canadian events, for his encouragement and support which brought me to York University for graduate school. ! In Zamboanga peninsula I’d like to thank my local organizational partner AdPeace. The hospitality they showed helped acclimatize me to the area and provided me a local “home” to return to after visits to the field. Their help with making initial contacts were invaluable and my research would have stalled before it even began without their support. I’d also like to thank all my respondents for their candour and support. I deeply respect their perseverance and generally positive attitude in spite of their difficult circumstances. And my deepest and most heartfelt thanks go out to my two local gatekeepers timuay “Itim" and “Cory.” Their hospitality, their willingness to share their time and local knowledge, and tirelessness in helping introduce me to potential respondents were without doubt the backbone of this research. A similar thanks goes out to “Yibe,” who’s introduction allowed me access to the “Magic Six” after weeks of failure. This thesis was very much co-produced by them and I will forever be in their debt. ! At York University I’d like to thank my supervisor Peter Vandergeest for his support during the entire writing stage of this work. His exhaustive copy editing, coupled with his suggestions on flow and theory made this work better. Thanks also goes out to professor Robin Roth whose ‘Research Methods’ course helped immensely during the research proposal stage. To my committee member Philip Kelly for his comments and critiques during the latter half of the writing stage. And to professor Carlota McAllister who rounded out my thesis committee for her insightful questions and comments during my thesis defence. ! I would like to thank all my professors and colleagues in the geography department at York for a daunting yet wonderful experience these last couple of years. As well as to the administrative support of Yvonne Yim to whom I asked a lot of “I’ve been out of school for over a decade” type questions. ! Thank you all. And thanks to the many more who are not mentioned above. !iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ! ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………………………….. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS …………………………………………………………………………. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ….……………………………………………………………………….. iv LIST OF MAPS ………………………………………………………………………………….… vi LIST OF CHARTS ………………………………………………………………………………… vi LIST OF PHOTOS ………………………………………………………………………………… vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………..…………….. 2 THESIS OVERVIEW ……………………………………………………………………………… 4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LITERATURE …………………………………….……………….. 5 ! CHAPTER TWO: CONCEPTS AND THEORY …………………………………………….…. 6 MINING, THE PHILIPPINES, & THE GLOBAL ECONOMY ………………………………….. 6 THE GLOBAL SCALE …………………………………………………………………… 8 THE STATE SCALE ……………………………………………………………………… 9 THE LOCAL SCALE …………………………………………………………………….. 10 SMALL-SCALE MINING IN THE PHILIPPINES ………………………………………………. 11 SMALL-SCALE MINING WORLDWIDE ………………………………………………………. 14 CLASS FORMATION, CLASS DYNAMICS, & CAPITAL FLOWS …………………………… 15 CLASS AS POSITION …………………………………………………………………… 16 CLASS AS PROCESS ……………………………………………………………………. 16 CLASS AS PERFORMANCE ……………………………………………………………. 17 CLASS AS POLITICS ……………………………………………………………………. 19 IMPORTANT FEATURES IN THESE CONCEPTIONS OF CLASS …………………… 19 MINING INDUCED DISPLACEMENT ………………………………………………………….. 20 ! CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY …………………………………….………………… 22 NEGOTIATING ISSUES OF POSITIONALITY & POWER …………………………………….. 24 RESEARCH TIMELINE ………………………………………………………………………….. 26 RESEARCH METHODS EMPLOYED …………………………………………………………… 28 RECRUITING INTERVIEWEES …………………………………………………………………. 29 TOTAL INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED …………………………………………………………… 30 MY KEY COMMUNITY CONTACTS & GUIDES ……………………………………………… 32 SECURITY & ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ………………………………………………….. 33 !LANGUAGE CONSIDERATIONS ……………………………………………………………….. 35 CHAPTER FOUR: BALABAG BEFORE SMALL-SCALE MINING …………….………… 36 GOLD MINING IN THE PHILIPPINES ………………………………………………………….. 36 THE CREATION OF A NEOLIBERAL MINING POLICY …………………………….. 36 SMALL-SCALE MINING LAWS IN THE PHILIPPINES ……………………………… 37 THE STATE OF MINING IN THE PHILIPPINES ………………………………………. 38 MINING ON INDIGENOUS LANDS …………………………………………………… 40 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA ………………………………………….. 41 THE SEMI-FEUDAL AGRARIAN ECONOMY …………………………………………………. 45 SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY IN ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA …………………………….. 46 MUNICIPAL DEMOGRAPHICS & SOCIOECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES …………. 47 !A HISTORY OF BALABAG BEFORE MINING ………………………………………………… 51 !iv CHAPTER FIVE: SMALL-SCALE MINING IN BALABAG ……………………………….. 57 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD ……………………………………………………………………. 57 THE FIRST MINERS ……………………………………….…………………………………….. 60 THE CREATION OF MOSSMA ………………………………………………………………….. 63 REPRESENTATION & REALITIES OF SSM SUCCESS ……………………………………….. 65 SECOND TIER MINE OWNERS ………………………………………………………………… 67 THE PRODUCTION & REPRODUCTION OF CLASS ………………………………………… 69 AGRARIAN TRANSFORMATIONS ……………………………………………………. 71 DIVISION OF LABOUR ………………………………………………………………… 74 OTHER LIVELIHOODS IN BALABAG ……………………………………………….. 78 CLASS STRUGGLE ……………………………………………………………………………… 79 THE MAGIC SIX vs SMALL MINE OWNERS ………………………………………… 79 OWNERS vs WORKERS ………………………………………………………………… 85 OWNERS & OPERATORS ……………………………………………………… 86 OWNERS & TUNNEL MINERS ……………………………………………….. 87 WORKERS vs WORKERS ………………………………………………………………. 90 THE ROLE OF ETHNICITY: SUBANEN & NON-SUBANEN …………………….….. 92 HOW SSM PRODUCED A LACK OF INCENTIVE & “THE GOOD LIFE” ……………….….. 96 THE LIFE OF A LABOURER …………………………………………………………… 97 THE END OF SSM IN BALABAG ………………………………………………………………. 101 !THE SEEDS FOR POST-SSM LIFE ……………………………………………………………… 105 CHAPTER SIX: LIFE AFTER SMALL-SCALE MINING ………….……………………….. 105 MY FIELD SITE IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF DIPLAHAN & BAYOG ……………….……. 109 HEALTH ISSUES …………………………………………………………………………………. 115 POST-SSM LIVELIHOODS ……………………………………………………………………… 119 SOCIAL IMPACTS ……………………………………………………………………..………… 121 IN CONVERSATION WITH THE WOMEN …………………………………………………….. 123 THE MINE OWNERS AFTER SSM ……………………………………………………………… 127 THE MAGIC SIX ………………………………………………………………………… 128 THE OTHER MINE OWNERS ………………………………………………………….. 130 !ANALYZING MOBILITY IN THE POST-SSM ERA ………………………………………….… 132 !CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………… 135 !APPENDIX: SAMPLE QUESTIONS ………………………………………………………….. 146 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………………… 150 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !v ! ! LIST OF MAPS Map 1: The Philippine regions …………………………………………………………………….. 1 Map 2: Zamboanga Peninsula and its municipalities ……………………………………………… 22 Map 3: General zoning map of Bayog …………………………………………………………….. 48 !Map 4: Landslide hazard map for Bayog ………………………………………………………….. 115 ! ! ! LIST OF CHARTS !Chart 1: Overall gold production in the Philippines ………………………………………………. 39 ! ! ! LIST OF PHOTOS Photo 1: Image of the mountains from the lowlands …………………………………………….… 70 Photo 2: The SSM community on Balabag ………………………………………………………… 77 Photo 3: A rod mill in operation …………………………………………………………………… 85 Photo 4: Subanons from Canatuan ………………………………………………………………… 93 Photo 5: Homes in rural Bayog ……………………………………………………………………. 113 Photo 6: Environmental and health issues in SSM ………………………………………………… 117 !Photo 7: A barangay ‘prison’ ………………………………………………………………………. 123 ! ! !vi Map 1: The Philippine regions. My research site was in the area around the former small-scale mining community on Mt. Balabag in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX) in Mindanao. Also noted on the map is Mt. Canatuan, the site of the first TVIRD large-scale mine