By AMADO P. MACASAET

The entire mining industry is constantly harassed by so-called "indigenous people."

Under the law, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources cannot issue an environmental clearance without a clearance from the National Indigenous People’s Commission.

While the objective is to protect the indigenous people from being abused by businessmen, their names have been used to harass or even blackmail mining investors.

"Indigenous" people sprout like mushrooms overnight in a mineral area that is being prepared for exploration. They are often joined by non-governmental organizations which never tire mouthing the old line that the mining project cannot be allowed because it harms the environment.

However, there has not been one mining project that has been stopped by the objections of indigenous people or the environmentalists.

Which, to some businessmen, is an indication that the names of indigenous people are being used as harassment tools.

There is this small-time contractor, Sergio Pascual.

Records of the Department of Public Works and Highways do not speak highly of him. Insiders at the DPWH claim that Pascual abandoned several contracts after getting paid.

Pascual, according to some contractors, is now operating in Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Agusan, part of the so-called Caraga region.

He is filing adverse claims to mining concessions which have been perfected after long and expensive years of documentation to comply with the law.

A source in the mining industry said that Pascual also filed applications for offshore concessions in the Caraga region, although he does not tell government or his friends where he is going to get the money to operate the concessions in the event they are granted to him.

The same source explained that Pascual draws his "influence" or "power" from his connections with a PNP official in the Caraga region.

It is said that Pascual moves around with armed bodyguards he claims are provided by the official. He has grown too big for his own britches, according to a local official in the region.

It is not out of the goodness of his heart that he is filing counter-claims on perfected concessions. People who hate him are of the opinion that he is opening a door for blackmail.

Of particular interest to him are the concessions of a Filipino group which is about to finalize an investment agreement with a large Japanese mining company.

It is said that he made a pile before without doing much. Sources said that he is trying again, literally using the firepower of his PNP friend.

The Japanese investors have called a meeting with their Filipino partners early next week.

They sent soundings that they may forget the joint venture if the government does not move against chiselers.

Pascual is said to have spread the word that he will mass indigenous people in the thousands against the proposed joint venture.

He would not tell them what he wants. But the Japanese businessmen are reading between the lines. They do not like what they read. But they will not yield.