The Didipio community, led by the United People’s Organization of Didipio, continue to barricade the access roads to the Didipio mine of OceanaGold. #Didipiomine #OceanGold
A group composed of people’s organizations, local government units, and national organizations of environmentalists, church leaders, and indigenous peoples held a picket at the historic Chino Roces bridge in Mendiola, Manila on Monday demanding that President Rodrigo Duterte reject the OceanaGold Philippines Inc.’s application for renewal of its financial or technical assistance agreement (FTAA).
Former party-list representative Neri Colmenares, legal counsel of Save Nueva Vizcaya Movement, said if Duterte is true to his promise of closing down destructive big mines, he should act of these injustices.
He also reiterated that there are various causes of action that warrants the outright rejection if OceanGolds’s FTAA renewal.
“The local government units from the barangay, municipal, to the provincial government have witnessed OceanGold’s crimes to the people and the environment. We urgently call on President Duterte to follow the same actions the LGUs of Nueva Vizcaya have taken and reject OceanGold’s FTAA with finality,” Colmenares said in a statement.
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Meanwhile, Julie Simongo, spokesperson of the United People of Kasibu Nueva Vizcaya and co-convenor of SNVM, said they went to Manila all the way from Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya, to show that they no longer welcome OceanGold mining their lands and communities.
“We’ve had enough of the destruction they have done to our environment and communities,” Simongo said.
The complaint filed at the Office of the President contained the documented human rights violations of the gold and copper mine, including civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, and water and other environmental rights experienced by the residents of Nueva Vizcaya.
These included the documented water depletion of wells, creeks, and springs, and the reported violent demolition of indigenous people’s houses.
The Didipio community, led by the United People’s Organization of Didipio, continue to barricade the access roads to the Didipio mine of OceanaGold since the expiration of the mine’s FTAA last June 20, 2019.
The mining company recently suspended its operations after being paralyzed by the people’s barricades and the restraining orders by the local government units.
