Tribal folks barricade nearing clash with mining firm

Close to a hundred tribal folk are preparing for a head-on confrontation with an allegedly armed pro-mining mob and heavy drilling equipment in the municipality of Kasibu in Nueva Vizcaya, Northern Luzon, this afternoon, an environmental group reported.

Citing reports from the field, Kalikasan Peoples’ Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) National Coordinator Clemente Bautista Jr. said a barricade manned by indigenous peoples from the Bugkalot, Kankaney, Ifugao, and Kalanguya tribes in Sitio Digyan, Pao, Kasibu is now posed to block the forcible entry of Australian mining firm RoyalCo and its local partner Oxiana Philippines into their ancestral lands anytime this afternoon.

“Majority of Kasibu’s indigenous tribes are opposing Oxiana and RoyalCo’s plans to enter Pao and Kakidungen towns in Kasibu for mining exploration. The barricade site in Digyan is now guarded with 78 people from the Bugkalot anti-mining community. More people are now flocking to the site to support the barricade,” said Allan Barnacha, Spokesperson for the Save the Valley Serve the People Movement based in Nueva Vizcaya.

According to Bugkalot leader Kagawad Mariano Maddela of Barangay Pa’o, a contingent of allegedly armed pro-mining people mobilized by Royalco Philippines approaching the the barricade at the moment of this writing, less than a kilometer away from the barricade proper.

“The mining firm has brought along 130 pro-mining Bugkalots coming from the adjacent municipality of Nagtipunan in Quirino Province along with its heavy equipment, bulldozer and two dumptrucks carrying drilling equipment and paramilitary personnel from the Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO),” Maddela said.

The barangay officials from eight barangays in the municipality of Kasibu are now at a dialogue with Kasibu Mayor Romeo Tayaban and are seeking his urgent intervention on the matter, Maddela added. Mayor Tayaban previously supported the anti-mining communities during Oxiana’s failed bid to bring in its mining equipment.

Manila-based environmentalists called on the DENR to prevent Oxiana, its allegedly armed men and its drilling equipment from ramming into the human barricade.

“We are are urgently challenging DENR Sec. Lito Atienza to step in to prevent any bloodshed and human rights violations by Oxiana and RoyalCo. We challenge Atienza to make good his promise last year to enforce a status quo order on the mining dispute in Kasibu. The DENR and the mining company must respect the people’s opposition to the mine, as manifested by the ongoing barricade,” Bautista said.

The current barricade in Pao village is the second barricade against Oxiana and RoyalCo set up by communities in the area. Since July 12, 2007, hundreds of indigenous tribespeople from the villages of Pao, Paquet, Dine, Kakidungen, and Catarawan in Kasibu municipality have joined the first successful barricade against the mining firm in Paquet village. Unable to bring its drilling equipment into the site, Oxiana and Royalco are now trying to cut through an alternate path through a logging road in Pao village, Bautista said.

There are currently two ongoing barricades against foreign mining firms eyeing exploration operations in Kasibu. Earlier this week, indigenous peoples in the citrus-growing village of Papaya in Malabing Valley, Kasibu, successfully expelled another Australian-owned mining firm, OceanaGold Philippines, from conducting exploration operations in their lands.

“It is evident from the collective and courageous mass barricades in Kasibu that the people do not want large-scale mining to devastate their communities. The DENR and the Arroyo administration must take this into consideration and withdraw the permits issued to Oxiana, RoyalCo and OceanaGold,” Bautista said.

Bautista also called for urgent action from Congress. House Resolution 211, urgently directing the Committee on National Cultural Communities to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation into the alleged encroachment of Oxiana into the ancestral lands of IP communities in Kasibu, was filed last year by Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casino.