More than 80 indigenous folk from Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, led by the Kasibu Inter-tribal Response towards Ecological Development (KIRED), along with environmental and national minority groups, protested at the offices of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Quezon City on July 14. They demanded the cancellation of the exploration permit of the North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC).

During the protest, group leaders entered the MGB office to submit an appeal regarding the company’s mining operations. Since May, Kasibu residents have set up barricades to block the entry of NLMRC’s excavation machinery into their area.

They said the 4,456-hectare mining exploration for gold and copper threatens vital farmlands, water sources, and ancestral lands. The project was approved without genuine free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) from the indigenous communities.

Katribu and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (Katribu Youth) expressed solidarity with the struggle of Kasibu residents. They are aware that the struggle of Kasibu residents is not separate from what other communities in Nueva Vizcaya are experiencing. For decades, indigenous peoples across Nueva Vizcaya have fought against large-scale, foreign-owned mining, which has only brought environmental destruction, loss of livelihood, militarization, and human rights violations in their commmunities.

The events in Kasibu expose the true state of the country for indigenous peoples, Katribu said. Instead of protecting them, the Marcos regime has aggressively opened up ancestral lands to large-scale foreign mining and renewable energy projects.

Katribu called on the DENR and MGB to immediately cancel NLMRC’s exploration permit. The group also called on Congress to investigate the continuous expansion of destructive mining in ancestral lands and to uphold the rights guaranteed by international human rights standards.