Inquiry on lawmakers’ ‘detention’ in Vizcaya mining site pushed

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The four House members “detained” at a police checkpoint in a remote mountain highway in neighboring Quirino province vowed yesterday to conduct a House inquiry into the incident, which they said was an “affront” to an institution of the Republic.

Rep. Carlos Padilla of this province, along with three of his colleagues, Ifugao Reps. Solomon Chungalao, Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna and Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela, denounced their “detention,” describing the police action as a “direct affront on the House” as well as on duly elected officials of this province.

“Never have I ever been detained at a checkpoint anywhere, whether in Nueva Ecija or Bulacan. What an irony that in my native region on the way to my province, I and my colleagues have to suffer this indignity,” he said.

Likewise, Chungalao, Casiño and Ilagan said they would not allow such thing to pass and bring up the matter in the plenary session of the House.

The lawmakers were flagged down and eventually “detained” inside a police-manned checkpoint for about 20 minutes in Burgos, Cabarroguis town, while on their way to their second and last leg of a two-day on-site investigation of complaints by members of the cultural communities in Kasibu town’s Didipio village against a foreign mining firm in their area.

The solons’ convoy of around 30 vehicles, which also included local officials led by Gov. Luisa Lloren Cuaresma, who accompanied them all the way to the remote mountain village, where the national government’s multibillion-peso Didipio Gold-Copper Project of the Oceana Gold Philippines is based.

The convoy was only allowed passage along the provincial road in Barangay Debibi, Cabarroguis town in Quirino province after “heated and intense” discussions which caused Padilla and the local government executives to lose their temper on the “insult” accorded them.

The lawmakers, all members of the House committee on cultural communities, were on their way to the mining area to conduct an inquiry over alleged abuses committed on tribal villagers by the mining company, whom the national government contracted for its $117-million Didipio venture, one of the only two large-scale mining projects granted a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement since the enactment of the 1995 Mining Act.

Inhabited by a number of indigenous communities, Didipio, around three hours from this capital town, is nestled along the remote mountain boundary of this province and Quirino, which also claims the gold and copper rich village as part of its territory.

The House investigation was also prompted by the reported worsening “conflicts” between pro and anti-mining tribal residents in the area as a result of the killing of Didipio village chairman Paul Baguilat, a known pro-mining advocate.

“It makes me feel that the various agencies of the national government are currying favor with the company,” Padilla said. “If they can do this to members of Congress, if they can do this to the governor and other provincial officials of Nueva Vizcaya, they can do this to anybody.”

Cuaresma, who hosted the House members in their stay here, also slammed the local police for the “discourtesy” they displayed on members of a revered government institution.

“I will never allow martial rule in Didipio nor tolerate all these abuses of Oceana Gold and their cohorts in the government who think they are kings and already consider Didipio as their own kingdom. I will mobilize through legal means all resources of the provincial government to eject this mining company,” she said.