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16 OCTOBER 2009

CHR CHAIRPERSON ON ILLEGAL DEMOLITIONS IN BGY. DIDIPIO, KASIBU, NUEVA VIZCAYA: “IT'S TIME TO PUT AN END TO THIS.”

On 5 October 2009, the Commission on Human Rights received reports of continued harassment of residents of Bgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, which escalated into an incident of violent dispersal of a human barricade composed of local residents.

The land comprising Bgy. Didipio is the subject of a long-standing dispute over a mining claim owned by OceanaGold Philippines Inc. The barangay is one of 23 barangays covered by a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) granted to OceanaGold. Bgy. Didipio in particular is the site of OceanaGold's Didipio Gold and Copper Project. Since 2006, there has been intensive opposition to mining operations in the area. As early as 2007, there have been reports of human rights violations in the area, allegedly related to the operation of the mining claim.

While mining activities have remained in oblivion in light of the harsh opposition to continued operations, several residents have been systematically evicted from their homes. The latest estimates from Alyansa Tigil Muna (ATM), Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights) and Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) show that over a hundred indigenous families in Bgy. Didipio have been displaced this year. In addition, it appears that OceanaGold itself has aggressively installed fences and checkpoints on accustomed public thoroughfares within the barangay, thereby restricting the free movement of residents.

The efforts to remove residents from Bgy. Didipio reached a violent climax on 1 October 2009, when members of an estimated hundred-man contingent of the Philippine National Police (PNP), clad in anti-riot gear, destroyed the home of a resident at the foot of Dinkidi Hill. The PNP contingent forcefully dispersed residents who formed a human barricade to prevent further demolitions, detonating teargas canisters and beating fleeing residents with truncheons.

The violence ended when the PNP contingent was forced to pull out when a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued by the RTC by 11:00 am on the same day. The demolitions are currently on hold with the issuance of a subsequent 20-day TRO and a hearing on the same scheduled for the 19 th of October.

The CHR Chairperson, Leila M. De Lima, has responded to the residents' request for assistance relayed through NGOs ATM, PhilRights and TFDP, with a promise of a more assertive intercession by the Commission. “This protracted dispute requires an En Banc-level intervention,” the Chairperson said. “The resolution of this broad conflict over mining operations has taken too long, and violence in the interregnum was a disaster waiting to happen.”

The CHR had recently intervened in a successful return to their community of displaced indigenous peoples (the Manobos) in Surigao del Sur at the end of August this year. “Just as we had done in Surigao,” De Lima said, “we intend to carry out a top-level investigation in Bgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.”

From initial reports, it appears that the October 1 demolition is fraught with irregularity. “I will personally visit Bgy. Didipio and determine for myself the extent of the illegality of the demolition operations and alleged harassment of residents,” De Lima remarked. “If the Commission finds that there is truth to allegations that the PNP conducted the operation for the private benefit of OceanaGold and not for the welfare of the public-at-large, if the PNP contingent was indeed armed, in violation of protocols on forced evictions and if the force that was employed was unnecessary and excessive, I will make sure that not only must the residents be restored to their homes, but members of the demolition team and their superiors will be held administratively and criminally liable.”

On the issue of harassment of residents by the installation of fences and checkpoints, the Chairperson added, “The rights of the indigenous inhabitants and residents of Bgy. Didipio to have an abode, to free ingress and egress from their homes cannot be impaired on the whim and caprices of the government, let alone a private enterprise such as OceanaGold. We will get to the bottom of OceanaGold's complicity in the dispersal and in all these alleged incidents of harassment.”

The Chairperson, together with a team of Commission lawyers and investigators, will visit Nueva Vizcaya on 22-23 October 2009, to carry out an investigation in Bgy. Didipio.