they can come back - "they" being mining companies reinforced by venal politicians. It depends on the projected selling price of the mineral vice the extraction costs, which sometimes include the costs of neutralizing (kill, detain or convert) the opposition.

Your area is protected by the terrain (where even a lowlander from Cavite, like Aquinaldo, could hang out in Lubuagan for a couple of months). However, the still-unexploited mineral resources of the mountains suggest to me that the last chapter has not been written.

But, perhaps, I'm taking my life's experiences with mining companies and venal politicians, and moving them improperly to another venue that only looks similar from this armchair. And, maybe, these entities (moving from older to newer), e.g., Benguet Corporation, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation and Philex Mines - Padcal, are as benign as their PR folks make them. But, I expect those entities have done far more for themselves and Makati City than for the Cordillera.

He who would bring in outside muscle to chastise a traditionalist mountain population would do well to view the movie Matewan; and the non-fiction accounts of the Battle of Matewan and the Battle of Blair Mountain. Of course, the mining companies and their paramilitary forces "won" most of those battles in the short term; but what they "won" in the long term is questionable.

As you say - "too much trouble". So, the logical COA would be to bypass militarily (and forget about gun control), but build whatever links could be built with the local Sid Hatfields.

This, the Copper Country Strike of 1913–1914 (Wiki & MTU Archives), still raises hackles after 97 years.

Regards

Mike