The Benguet gold mines in the Cordillera region of Luzon were worked by the Igorot people for centuries before Spanish arrival. The Spanish attempted to seize the mines, leading to centuries of resistance ('Igorot Revolts') where indigenous groups used unique tactics and weaponry (the 'head axe') to defend their gold. This is a rare case of indigenous communities successfully preventing colonial takeover of their mineral wealth.

The 'Benguet' gold and the Igorot 'resistance' are central to the Philippine epic poetry and 'salidumay' (courtship songs) of the Cordillera. The poet and national hero José Rizal referenced the 'indomitable' Igorot in his novels and poems as a model of Filipino resistance to colonization. In contemporary Filipino poetics, the 'gold mine' represents the ancestral domain that the state and foreign corporations continually attempt to extract. The poet Cirilo F. Bautista wrote of the 'Cordillera' as a 'geography of revolt,' where the 'vein of ore' is synonymous with the 'vein of memory' and self-determination, creating a powerful eco-literary critique of modern mining laws.