A group called on fellow Indigenous peoples to rise against the plunder of ancestral domains as the struggle against mining exploration activities intensifies in Nueva Vizcaya province.
The Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu) asked for greater solidarity from various Indigenous peoples across the country as police arrested several protesters in Dupax del Norte town last week.
A Bayombong Regional Trial Court issued a Writ of Preliminary Injunction against a community-led barricade in the said municipality, leading the Philippine National Police to arrest of seven residents protesting mining activities.
“We continue to condemn the dismantling of the people’s barricade in Dupax del Norte and reiterate our call for the immediate halt of mining activities in the area,” Katribu said.
Despite the court order, the group said the barricade against British mining company Woggle Corporation is not a crime as the protesters are exercising of their right to peacefully assemble and speak out against displacement, land grabbing, environmental destruction, and the loss of their livelihoods.
It added that the continuing dispersal and arrests trample on the people’s rights to a balanced and healthy ecology that are guaranteed by the Constitution.
Katribu pointed to precedent destructive effects of mining operations in the province by Woggle’s sister corporations FCF Minerals, a fellow subsidiary of the British mining firm Metals Exploration.
It said FCF Minerals operates the Runruno Gold Project in Quezon town, also opposed by local communities due to its impacts on land, water, and livelihoods in the area.
Another sister corporation, Yamang Mineral, is attempting to establish a large-scale mining project in Abra province, covering an estimated 16,200 hectares of ancestral land. It also faces still opposition from Indigenous peoples’ groups in Abra.
“These actions expose a state that places corporate profit over people’s lives and rights,” Katribu said.
The mountains of Dupax del Norte is among the sources of Cagayan River’s headwater, the country’s longest and widest river.
It is inhabited by the Malaats and the Caraos tribes, as well as Ifugaos who migrated from the nearby Cordilleras.
The protesting residents said Woogle’s mining operations would destroy their livelihood, as what Oceana Gold has done in nearby Kasibu town in Nueva Vizcaya.
The violent dispersal of protesters also earned condemnations from the clergy, including Bishop Jose Elmer Mangalinao of Bayombong who called for accountability.
The Makabayan coalition of progressive partylists as well as various environmentalist groups trooped to the barricades last week to express support to the residents. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
