Stand with Mankayan! Stop CMDC’s exploration!

KATRIBU Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas stands with the people of Mankayan, Benguet, in their continuing struggle to defend their ancestral lands against destructive mining operations. We condemn the recent legal actions pursued by the Crescent Mining and Development Corporation (CMDC) against the Mankayan people's opposition.

On July 10, 2026, the Regional Trial Court Branch 64 in Abatan, Buguias, Benguet issued a 72-hour Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in favor of CMDC against residents opposing the company’s exploration activities. The issuance of the TRO and the summons served against community leaders are yet another attempt to use the legal system to break the people's collective resistance and clear the way for large-scale mining. These actions only serve to criminalize people’s defense of their lands and livelihood.

For months, the people of Mankayan have maintained barricades to stop CMDC's exploration, as the project threatens their farms, water sources, sacred sites, and future generations. Their struggle is rooted not in defiance of the law, but in their inherent rights as Indigenous Peoples to protect their ancestral lands from destructive projects imposed without genuine upholding of the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) processes. Several elders and landowners have also already withdrawn their support for the project after being misled into signing documents presented as support for the company's operations. CMDC’s operations are undoubtedly unwelcome among the affected residents.

Mankayan is not an isolated case. In Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, residents have courageously mounted a barricade to resist the mineral exploration activities of North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC). 

This is the current face of mining plunder in the Philippines: where corporations advance their interests despite harm to life, livelihood, and the environment. With the aggressive push for more mining under initiatives such as Pax Silica, Indigenous territories are once again being opened as targets for extractive industries. We expect intensified attacks against communities defending their lands as corporations seek greater access to mineral resources at the expense of people and the environment.

As the State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples approach, KATRIBU will continue to carry the calls of Indigenous communities resisting plunder, displacement, and rights violations. We hold the Marcos administration accountable for allowing the continued expansion of destructive projects in ancestral lands and for its direct complicity in the violation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

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Reference:

Funa-ay Claver

Secretary-General,

KATRIBU Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas