An ecumenical group of Philippine bishops has accused courts of enabling legal attacks on Indigenous people, farmers and environmental defenders resisting mining exploration in Nueva Vizcaya.
The Ecumenical Bishops Forum said Nov. 2 that the legal system was being used against communities opposing mining activities in Kasibu town, days after a regional trial court ordered residents to stop blocking access to exploration sites.
“We, the Ecumenical Bishops Forum, raise our prophetic voice in righteous indignation against the weaponization of the law to crush the peaceful defenders of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya,” the bishops said.
Regional Trial Court Branch 30 issued a 72-hour temporary restraining order on Oct. 27 in favor of North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation, or NLMRC, and the Bugkalot Confederation of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, and Aurora, Inc., according to Northern Dispatch.
Judge Paul Atttolba issued the order against 56 individuals maintaining barricades along the Paquet-Pao Municipal Road and roads in Pao, Catarawan, Kakiduguen and Paquet.
The order barred residents from obstructing NLMRC personnel, equipment, vehicles, contractors and officials from reaching the company’s exploration sites.
Residents have maintained the barricades since May, blocking the movement of fuel, equipment and vehicles used for exploration. They allege that NLMRC secured its exploration permit without genuine community consultation.
The bishops defended the community resistance.
“The grassroots resistance of Kasibu’s farmers and indigenous people is not a crime, but an act of biblical stewardship and faithful obedience to the Creator,” the bishops said.
The forum also criticized the use of court injunctions against communities resisting mining.
“When courts issue oppressive injunctions to dismantle community barricades and shield corporate plunder, jurisprudence is severed from divine justice,” the bishops said.
NLMRC, in its complaint seeking a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction, accused residents of unlawfully blocking public roads and claimed 8.3 million pesos in losses from May to September because it could not operate.
The company alleged that respondents “have unlawfully erected barricades and physical obstructions on public municipal roads, specifically the Pao, Catarawan, Kakiduguen, and Paquet roads without legal authority, thereby blocking the legitimate Exploration Permit.”
Fidel Santos, a lawyer for the residents, disputed the company’s financial claim.
“In their complaint, they did not submit a single document to prove that they suffered losses amounting to P8.3 million,” Santos said.
Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment has called for the cancellation of NLMRC’s exploration permit and an investigation into allegations of harassment and abuse of state power against residents opposing the project.
NLMRC has also applied for another exploration permit covering 4,855 hectares in Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, in addition to its existing exploration area in Kasibu.
Santos said the Kasibu dispute was connected to the government’s wider mining policy, including Executive Order 122, which establishes a national policy framework for the critical minerals industry.
“The situation in Kasibu is not isolated from what is happening in other areas affected by mining,” Santos said.
The bishops said criminalizing communities protecting watersheds while using state power against them was an “inversion of righteousness.”
“In fidelity to the Gospel, we bless Kasibu’s peaceful vigil, demand that the judiciary cease enabling corporate coercion, and stand steadfast with the people of Nueva Vizcaya until justice rolls down like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream,” the bishops said.
The pastoral statement was signed by members of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum’s executive committee, led by Episcopal Church in the Philippines Prime Bishop Nestor D. Poltic Sr., the forum’s chairperson.
