More than 30 cases have been filed against Indigenous leaders, environmentalists, and lawyers for establishing anti-mining barricades in Nueva Vizcaya, a province in the northern part of Luzon, the Philippines’ biggest island.
Nueva Vizcaya is a mountainous province known for its vegetable produce and mineral resources. The surge in mineral exploration has led to the displacement of rural villagers and Indigenous peoples, which spurred communities to resist by installing barricades to disrupt the operations of extractive companies.
The grassroots organizers rallied public support and succeeded in pressuring officials to suspend Woggle Corporation’s mining permit. Another barricade set up on May 19 targeted the area of the North Luzon Minerals Resources Corporation, which was initially given the right to explore 4,456 hectares in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.
Indigenous leaders and residents insist they were not properly consulted about the mining activities in their ancestral lands. They also expressed strong opposition regarding the destructive impact of the mineral exploration permits.
In response, mining firms and some local officials filed cyberlibel and trespassing cases against the leaders of the groups that installed the community barricades. The most recent case led to an arrest on August 19, and officials also filed grave coercion and disobedience cases against local protesters.
Aside from barricading entry to mining sites, activists and Indigenous protesters also trooped to the capital, Manila, to petition the cancellation of permits granted to mining companies. Bugkalot tribe member Zesirie Enggo, 26, the convenor of Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response towards Ecological Development, was among the delegation who submitted a letter to a government agency. She spoke at a public forum about the impact of mining on their community:
” When I was a child, the river was wide, but now it has become just a channel of water that came from the mine.
It was supposed to be planting season, but there hasn’t been any rain yet. The water near the site of the drilling activities is already contaminated.
This case is just a small part of our struggle compared with what we are fighting for — not only for our community, but also to inspire other communities affected by large mining corporations.
Nueva Vizcaya is known for being a watershed that gives life to the community. If not taken care of, the production of fruits and vegetables will be scarce and it can’t supply to other places who depend on our products. That’s the consequence if we don’t do anything. ”
The Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan, a coalition of green groups in the province, issued a statement denouncing the harassment cases filed against local residents.
” The filing of cyberlibel and other cases against community leaders and their lawyers is part of a growing pattern of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) aimed at silencing environmental defenders and weakening legitimate resistance to large-scale mining. ”
It added that the so-called “green transition” ignores the welfare of Indigenous peoples and rural communities.
” These developments expose the human rights costs of the accelerating rush for critical minerals under the guise of the ‘green transition’ while affected communities continue to bear the burden of land dispossession, threats to their water sources, and attacks on their democratic rights. ”
Various groups outside the province have released public statements supporting the local campaign against large-scale mining.
The Center for Environmental Concerns condemned “the longstanding pattern of deliberate attempts from the collusion of state and private actors to stamp out local dissent.” The organization Yes to Life No to Mining asserted the right of Indigenous peoples and farming communities “to determine what happens to their land, especially as mining interferes with local land uses and visions for livelihood.”
Finally, Katribu acknowledged the role of collective action in pushing back against destructive projects.
” Indigenous peoples across Nueva Vizcaya have resisted for decades against large-scale, foreign-owned mining that has brought only environmental destruction, loss of livelihood, militarization, and human rights violations. From the successful resistance against Royal Co Mining Corporation in 2008, to the recent people’s barricade that compelled the suspension of Woggle Corporation’s exploration activities in Dupax del Norte, the people have repeatedly proven that organized communities can halt destructive mining projects. ”
Despite the legal threats, the barricades are still being actively defended by Indigenous peoples and other stakeholders in the community. The police have been deployed in the area, which prompted residents to decry the militarization of their community. The situation in Nueva Vizcaya reflects the tension in numerous towns across the country as Indigenous peoples and local residents reject the entry of big mining companies.
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