Mining chokes Nueva Vizcaya, indigenous people fight DENR-approved exploration

Indigenous people and environment advocates from Nueva Vizcaya gathered in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Central Office in Quezon City on Tuesday to stage a protest against the granted permit, allowing mining exploration of North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC) in the province.

Mining-affected residents and advocates demanded that the DENR and its Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to immediately revoke the permit that granted exploration of NLMRC to a 4,456-hectare area in Nueva Vizcaya.

“The action capped months of tension in Kasibu, where communities maintained a barricade against the entry of drilling equipment tied to the company’s exploration project”, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (PNE) said in a social media post.

Protesters, meanwhile, claimed that the proposed mining exploration threatens the ancestral domains of the indigenous people in Nueva Vizcaya, including risks to the livelihood and access to basic resources among residents, with potential impacts on rivers and other natural resources following the grant of mining exploration rights to NLRMC.

"We are here at the DENR Central Office. We are asking for help. We came from Kasibu because we are among those affected by the mining corporation," a citizen from Kasibu said in Filipino.

"We are asking the DENR director to cancel the exploration [of NLRMC]. It should be canceled because they did not go through the proper process, and there was no consultation with the residents who will be affected [by the mining operation]," the resident added during the protest.