The recent visit of Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Leila de Lima in Didipio last 05 November is commendable and shows seriousness and sincerity on the part of the commission to undertake a top level investigation with regards to complaints of human rights violations committed by OceanaGold Philippines Inc (OceanaGold) against the indigenous peoples’ residents of Barangay Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.

The chair of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights has spoken out against the OceanGold mine construction that is threatening Indigenous residents of Didipio—the focus of a Cultural Survival Global Response campaign. “It’s time to put an end to this,” said Leila M. De Lima. The ongoing conflict escalated into violence when more than 100 Philippine National Police officers used teargas and truncheons to break up a human barricade on October 1, 2009.

KASIBU, Nueva Vizcaya (NV)– Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), an advocacy group and a people’s movement composed of more than eighty (80) organizations from mining-affected communities and civil society organizations nationwide, condemns the illegal demolition and violent dispersal of the residents from communities, which hosts an Australian mining company owned by OceanaGold Corp. Inc. (OGPI). The incident happened last October 2 in Barangay Didipio, where OGPI’s Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) covers 23 barangays in the Municipality of Kasibu.

The bad new is that the repressive tactics of Philippine National Police are increasingly violent against the Indigenous people of Didipio who are trying to prevent further demolitions of their homes by the mining company, OceanaGold Philippines, Inc (OGPI). A mobile unit of the National Police is now stationed inside the offices of OGPI, clearing signaling the people that their government stands with the mining company and against them. 

Nueva Vizcaya --  An alarming situation continues in the upland village of Didipio, in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, where Ifugao indigenous peoples live.  Homes of Ifugaos known for their anti-mining sentiments were searched without warrants by security personnel of a mining company.