Vizcaya Mine Suspended

http://bulatlat.com/2008/06/vizcaya-mine-suspended

Various people’s actions converged with a court decision and legislative initiatives to discontinue a foreign mining firm’s operations in Brgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya. This coincided with a corporate decision to suspend contract work amid financial difficulties.

BY SHERRY MAE SOLEDAD
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 21, June 29-July 5, 2008

KASIBU, Nueva Vizcaya (200 kms. North of Manila) – Various people’s actions converged with a court decision and legislative initiatives to discontinue a foreign mining firm’s operations in Barangay (village) Didipio, this town. This coincided with a corporate decision to suspend contract work amid financial difficulties.

The Regional Trial Court issued a writ of preliminary injunction ordering Australian mining firm OceanaGold Philippines, Inc. and all other persons acting on its behalf to cease, desist and refrain from demolishing or dismantling (the omplainants’) houses until further court orders.

Last June 24, Australian mining firm OceanaGold Philippines Inc. (OGPI) said that it is suspending work at its $117-million gold-copper project amid the controversies hounding its operations over the past six months. In a company statement, OGPI said it is suspending a number of construction contracts as it tries to cut down on company expenses while looking for additional funding.

Environmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), together with its partner non-government organization (NGO) in Northern Luzon, Katinnulong Daguiti Umili iti Amianan (RDC-Kaduami) said in their statements, “We want to congratulate the people and the local government units of Nueva Vizcaya for successfully halting the operations of OceanaGold.”

Tactical victory

“Though temporary, this is a big tactical victory for the communities,” says Clemente Bautista Jr., national coordinator of militant environmental group Kalikasan-PNE.

Based on the annual reports of OceanaGold, it lost US$23.43 million and US$69.04 million in 2006 and 2007 respectively. This was despite the company’s infusion of additional capital of Canadian $90.00 million in its initial public offering in Toronto Stock Exchange last July 2007.

“It is not under the good grace and consideration of OceanaGold why it suspended its mining operation,” Bautista said. “For two consecutive years, this company is losing tens of millions of dollars while the opposition to the project becomes broader and stronger at the local, regional and national levels. These reasons forced the company to halt their operation. OceanaGold’s Didipio gold project is becoming more unsustainable and bankrupt everyday.”

Congressional action and provincial board’s withdrawal of support

At the national level, Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Teddy Casino authored House Resolution Nos. 594 and 211 mandating the Congressional Committee on National Cultural Communities to probe Australian mining firms OceanaGold and Royalco Resources, respectively, which both seek to extract the mineral wealth of Nueva Vizcaya “to the detriment of the indigenous peoples, remaining forestlands and the critical watershed areas in the region.” These resolutions have led to on-site investigations held last June 7-9 in Brgys. Didipio and Kakidugen.

In a statement, Casino said, “Reports reveal that OceanaGold has ’suspended’ its operations – meaning their timetable to get into full swing mineral extraction and production is thrown off course. I am further galvanized by this positive initial victory to work harder to protect the long-term interests of the indigenous peoples and the environment in Nueva Vizcaya.”

Meanwhile, the provincial board withdrew its support to OcaenaGold June 25 with a 7:4 vote. One abstained and another was absent.

The provincial government earlier issued a cease and desist order against the company because of its failure to pay local taxes worth P28 million ($625,139 at an exchange rate of $1=P44.79). Also, Atty. Edu Balgos, a senior board member proposed an ordinance outlawing open-pit mining in the province.

Peoples’ action

The move is welcomed by different organizations as about 200 people rallied to the provincial capitol carrying placards calling for the pullout of Oceana Gold’s operation.

“However, our call is not based on the failure of the company to pay local taxes but because of the adverse impact it will bring on the lives of the people here,” said Allan Barnacha, spokesman of Nueva Vizcaya’s Save the Valley, Serve the People Environmental Alliance.

According to local leader Lucas Buay of the Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response for Ecological Development (KIRED) the people’s struggle would continue against OceanaGold and other foreign mining companies encroaching in indigenous people’s territories.

“We have no recourse but to fight back,” Buay said. “The Arroyo administration, the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) have all shown their indifference to our rights as indigenous peoples. They disrespected and ignored our local officials.”

Buay added that the national government and its agencies have forsaken IPs for its pursuit of selling out their mineral and ancestral lands. “They have the same interest with foreign mining companies to plunder our patrimony,” he said. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

Large-scale Mining Operations Threaten Food Security of IPs in NuevaVizcaya; bring disunity among people

Food security of indigenous peoples in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya is threatened by the large-scale mining operations of OceanaGold Philippines, Inc. (OGPI) and Oxiana-RoyalCo. At the same time, the FPIC process under the IPRA law brings disunity among the IPs residing in the mining-affected areas.

Different organizations like the Philippine Network for the Environment (PNE)-Kalikasan, Katinnulong Daguiti Umili iti Amianan (RDC-KADUAMI) which is a member of the EED Philippines Partners’ Task Force for IP Rights (EED-TFIP), joined the Congressional hearing with their partner Save the Valley Environmental Alliance together with the local people organizations and other civil society organizations. The House Committee on National Cultural Communities conducted two on-site hearings and investigations in June 7-8, 2008 in Brgy. Kakidugen and Brgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya which are the sites of Oxiana-Royalco and OceanaGold,respectively.

Indigenous peoples expressed their concern about the adverse impacts that these mining operations will bring to the environment and their sources of livelihood and subsistence. “How do these mining operations address the food crisis of the people? We have been displaced from our ancestral lands in Ifugao and Benguet due to mining operations yet we are still facing the same problem here. We have witnessed the destructive impacts that these mining operations brought to the environment and we cannot allow this to happen again here. The people in these areas already have a sustainable source of livelihood than what these mining companies claim to provide upon entry of these operations,” said Lucas Buay of Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response for Ecological Development (KIRED).

The municipality of Kasibu has a wide forest area, about 30% of the total land area is forest land. It is proven that almost all crops except mango are suitable in this area.The primary agricultural products of the province are still rice and corn, but this gateway to the Cagayan Valley is envisioned to be the regional center for fruit and vegetable production and spice-based industries. “We cannot let the entry of these mining companies destroy our lands as Kasibu is considered the citrus capital of the country, with an annual output of about 10 million kilograms of oranges from an estimated 20,000 hectares of citrus plantations. The citrus farmers stand by its position that agriculture is still the sustainable development for the people as our independent study on the success of citrus industry here would show. We do not want mining here,” Alfonso Namuhje II of the Mallabing Tribal Development Association (MTDP) said.

In Nueva Vizcaya, about forty percent of its total population of 366,962 (based from the 2000 census) is comprised of indigenous people, e.g. Bugkalots, Ifugaos, Ibalois, Gaddangs, Isinais, Ikalahans and Ilongots. Bugkalots, a group of indigenous people from Nueva Vizcaya has entered into a peace covenant through a blood compact in 1950s with other IP groups who have migrated to this area after they had been driven away from their ancestral lands. The areas stated in the mining permit granted to the mining companies are within an ancestral land applied by the Bugkalots for Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC), through the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). “We were not consulted by the NCIP during the process of securing the FPIC certificate because we are only migrant IPs in the areas and we are not holders of CADC. But there was no such thing in the provisions of the IPRA law that migrant IPs could not be consulted, especially that we have been here for three decades now,” Fidel Opay of the Lower Muta Valley Farmers’ Federation (LMVFF) explained.

The FPIC process is being questioned because of the bribery and deception controversies in securing the certificate. “ Our peace pact with the Bugkalot tribe is also threatened to be negated because of this conflict that arises due to these controversies,” Opay added.

Mayor Romeo Tayaban of Kasibu, who was one of the resource speaker during the hearing said, “mining operations claim that they will bring development to the people in Kasibu. But what kind of development is this if our people are disunited? We were once a peaceful community but these issues have divided us because of these operations.”