Mining firm gets court injunction vs protesters

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizc­aya – A foreign mining firm engaged in exploration in remote villages in Kasibu town got a preliminary injunction from the regional trial court here last Wednesday, stopping anti-mining villagers from blocking the entry of its equipment.

Judge Godofredo Naui of RTC Branch 37 granted the petition of Australian firm Oxiana Philippines Inc. after local anti-mining groups failed to show any justifiable reason to stop its exploration in the Kasibu villages of Pao and Kakiduguen.

In a four-page order, Naui said there appeared to be “sufficient evidence to show that (Oxiana) has a right in esse to undertake any and all works granted under Exploration Permit II-000014,” and that the villagers’ acts violated this right. 

Oxiana Philippines, a subsidiary of Royalco Ltd., earlier sought a temporary restraining order to prevent anti-mining villagers from blocking the road leading to its exploration site, which it said had caused delay and financial losses to its exploration now supposed to be in its final stages.

Despite the issuance of a TRO, anti-mining groups still mounted the blockade.

Pao’s village head, Maria­no Maddela, a full-blooded Bugka­lot, is opposed to the government-sanctioned exploration project.

But tribal elders and other Bugkalots living in the project’s primary impact zone earlier had allowed the project to continue in a consultation meeting supervised by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

But other indigenous groups claimed they were not consulted and vowed to continue opposing the project whatever the court decision was.

Oxiana is exploring the commercial viability of deposits of gold, copper and other minerals in Pao, Kakiduguen and an adjoining barangay.

Nueva Vizcaya also hosts the multibillion-peso Didipio gold–copper project, also in Kasibu town, of Oceana Gold Ltd., supervised by an Australian-New Zealand consortium.

The Didipio venture is the first large-scale mining project in Cagayan Valley under the new Philippine Mining Act, which opened the once-moribund Philippine mining industry to more direct foreign investment. 

Engineer Jerrysal Manga­oang, Cagayan Valley director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, said Oxiana’s permit allows it to explore gold, copper, molybdenum and other minerals in Kasibu for 20 months, until Feb. 27, 2008. after it had obtained an agreement with Bugkalots living in the primary impact zone.