Activists want CHR’s report on probe of mining ‘abuses’ in Vizcaya

SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela – Anti-mining activists in Nueva Vizcaya have urged the Commission on Human Rights to come up with the report of the investigation the agency conducted last year on human rights violations allegedly committed by a mining firm in the upland mining town of Kasibu.

Prompted by the death last week of a supposed victim of aggressive mining operations there, members of a group of an environmental activists are demanding the CHR to submit its report on its probe on the operations of the Australia-based OceanaGold Philippines’ (OGP).

The Didipio Earth Savers Multi-Purpose Association (DESAMA) said Romeo Guimbangan, an Ifugao in his mid-50s, died due to a heart problem that supposedly had worsened since one of the mining firm’s bulldozers shoved his house off a cliff in 2008.

A report from the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) showed that the incident happened despite Guimbangan’s pleadings to the OGP wrecking team to defer the demolition until somebody could make him understand why would his house be demolished.

The OGP has since denied the allegations. At the height of issue in 2008, it said the firm has continued to abide by the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) awarded by the government.

On November 2009, a CHR team that was headed by then CHR head and now Department of Justice Secretary Laila De Lima and a team of human rights advocates along with Nueva Vizcaya-based media group, local and national non-government organizations, conducted an inquiry on the reported abuses by the OGP against the indigenous peoples (IP) in Kasibu town’s Didipio village.

The allegations against OGP included the purported illegal demolition of houses, some of which were said to have been bulldozed off a cliff.

The group said De Lima acted on the request of the IPs to look into irregularities of OGP in the conduct of its exploration activities and land acquisition schemes, which allegedly included duping of residents.

According to the group, a year has passed after the probe but its members and Didipio residents have yet to see CHR’s report.

According to Ronald Gregorio, team leader of LRC in Luzon, there are at least 180 indigenous residents who were victims of Oceana Gold’s violent demolitions.

“Some have already left Didipio, while others remain and have set-up temporary shelters within the vicinity of the community. Their farm and vegetable plots are now fenced off by the mining company,” He said.

On February 27, 2008, the Regional Trial Court of Bayombong issued an injunction against Oceana Gold’s demolition activities. The Court ruled that OGP failed to secure a special order of demolition issued by a court of law thus the demolition activities were “tainted with irregularity and contrary to law.”

On the other hanc, the giant mining firm and the Nueva Vizcaya provincial government have since been locked up in court cases against each other.

The OGP has been accused of refusing to pay millions in taxes due from its quarrying activities. The firm retaliated by filing a case of abuse of authority against the governor.

The legal tussle is in a deadlock even as the OGP was forced to suspend all of its exploration activities in the area due to financial woes. — LBG, GMANews.TV