The country’s mainline Protestant Church condemned the police dispersal of an anti-mining barricade in Nueva Vizcaya province and called for the immediate halt of a large-scale mining project, which it said threatens ancestral land, livelihoods, and the environment.
In a statement, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) said it stands “in firm solidarity with the people of Bitnong, Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, in their just and rightful struggle to defend their land” against a mining project it said lacks community support and violates the right to self-determination.
The council “strongly condemns the violent police dispersal against community residents who put up the people’s barricade” blocking the entry of mining equipment operated by Woggle Mining Corporation.
It said residents have “for years… courageously and peacefully resisted the intrusion of mining machinery into their community.”
“It is deeply troubling how international mining corporations can easily get the weight, favor, and leverage of the court while blatantly disregarding the devastating consequences of its mining project,” the NCCP said.
It described the situation as “a perfect example of corporate privilege, in collusion with the government as opposed to the peoples’ struggle for self-determination, dignity and justice.”
The NCCP urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to “listen to the concern and voice of the people,” calling for a halt order, a review of permits and environmental compliance, and action “to prevent the plunder of the community’s natural resources,” particularly “amidst the climate crisis.”
It also called on authorities, including the Philippine National Police, to “uphold their sworn duty to protect the people and respect their human rights as the people exercise their democratic right to peaceful assembly and protest.”
In a separate statement the same day, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines Council of Bishops said it was “extremely worried and morally outraged about the violent dispersal and ongoing harassment of communities in Dupax del Norte,” who are defending their land from the actions of Woogle Mining Corporation, which it said “appears to be supported by state forces.”
“This incident reflects a broader national pattern of environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and corporate exploitation affecting peasants and Indigenous Peoples,” the bishops said, adding that “the struggle of the people of Dupax del Norte is a moral and spiritual issue.”
The UCCP condemned “destructive large-scale mining and development aggressions that destroy ecosystems, poison waterways, displace communities, and worsen poverty,” and said it was “alarmed by the DENR’s continued support for extractive and corporate ventures that sacrifice people and the environment for the sake of profit.”
The bishops reiterated their opposition to “large-scale, foreign-dominated mining,” renewed calls to repeal the Mining Act of 1995, and affirmed Indigenous Peoples’ rights to ancestral land and “genuine Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.”
“In faithfulness to the Gospel, we call for the immediate stoppage of Woogle Mining’s operations, an independent investigation into the violence, accountability of responsible state agencies, protection for environmental defenders, and the pursuit of people-centered, ecologically just alternatives,” the statement said.
