Power to the people of Dupax! The defense against destructive mining continues!

The suspension of Woggle Corporation’s exploration permit is a victory won through the people’s resistance. We welcome this suspension and celebrate with the people of Dupax. Let this be our affirmation of the necessity of collective action–that protesting, organizing, and defending our rights yield results, and that the struggle of Indigenous Peoples is just.

We stress, however, that this suspension is only temporary. The struggle continues until extractive corporations like Woggle are held fully accountable for the threats they pose to communities. We shall remain vigilant until the permit is fully revoked and Woggle Corporation is completely driven out. History shows that mining corporations are persistent despite restrictions and objections.

The case of OceanaGold in Barangay Didipio, Kasibu, a neighboring town of Dupax del Norte in Nueva Vizcaya, offers a critical lesson. OceanaGold acquired the Didipio copper-gold mine in 2006 under a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) that should have expired in 2019. Long before its expiration, Indigenous Peoples and affected residents had already mounted sustained and organized opposition to the destructive mining operations.

In 2020, similar to the people’s barricade in Dupax, police violently dispersed a community barricade in Didipio, injuring numerous Indigenous reasidents, most of them women. Fifteen community members were charged with quarantine-related violations and civil disobedience, and a Didipio Earth Savers’ Movement Association (DESAMA) activist was arrested. Despite provincial restraining orders rooted in people’s resistance, OceanaGold claimed that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) endorsed their renewal, and in 2021, the Duterte administration overturned the mining ban and renewed the company’s contract. This renewal was followed by intensified militarization: the government deployed permanent military forces in Didipio to protect company interests, forcibly dismantle community barricades, evict residents, and demolish homes.

This is not an isolated case, but a broader pattern where communities fighting for their welfare are labeled as sources of conflict, therefore confronted with militarized state force. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) and the Marcos Jr. administration are pushing mining operations through programs and policy while failing to understand why communities resist. They frame Indigenous Peoples and residents as anti-development and see their resistance as cause for disorder. In truth, disorder and chaos comes from the encroaching projects themselves. Development is not genuine when it tramples on Indigenous rights, destroys the environment, and sidelines the welfare of the people.

Let this victory not be the end, but an affirmation of our continuing struggle for land and life!

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Reference:

Funa-ay Claver

National Coordinator

Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas