Residents of Nueva Vizcaya, environmental groups, church people, and anti-mining advocates welcomed the prosecutor’s dismissal of the charges filed against seven residents of Dupax del Norte on January 26. Police illegally arrested the seven while they were manning their barricade and arbitrarily detained them for opposing the Woggle Corporation’s entry into their community.
The Nueva Vizcaya Prosecutor’s Office ruled that the case of “resistance and disobedience against person in authority” against the seven residents had no basis, as did the added “obstruction of justice” charge against community leader Florentino Daynos. Among those arrested were Kagawad Krislyn Pocda, Adela Modi, Analiza Balliao, Amelia Rabino, Janet Macari, and Sonnette Bullecer.
According to the group Save Cagayan Valley, the fabricated case’s dismissal is a slap in the face of the US-Marcos Jr regime. It exposed the state’s failure to protect the environment and uphold the rights of communities against destructive mining operations.
Meanwhile, Migrante United Kingdom, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)-Britain, and London Philippine Solidarity protested on the same day at the office of Woggle Corporation’s parent company Metals Exploration PLC in London. They condemned the corporation for its continuing abuse, terrorism, and violence against farmers and indigenous people in Dupax del Norte.
Groups in the UK launched the campaign “British Mining Out of the Philippines” to demand British companies to dismantle mining operations that continue to plunder and destroy the country’s natural resources and violate human rights.
Protesters emphasized that mining largely impacts communities, threatening the livelihoods of farmers and indigenous people, their homes, agricultural lands, forest ecosystems, and a critical watershed that supports one of the country’s key food-producing regions.
