No to Destructive Mining in Dupax del Norte! Uphold Indigenous Peoples’ Rights!
- Panaghiusa Philippine Network
- Jan 18
- 4 min read
Panaghiusa Philippine Network to Uphold Indigenous Peoples’ Rights stands in firm solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples and farmers of Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, who continue to defend their lands through the people’s barricade amid escalating threats and pressure from state and private actors.
In recent days, the situation at the barricade in Barangay Bitnong has intensified. Community members have reported heightened police presence, including uniformed personnel stationed near the barricade site and conducting repeated visits to community leaders. There have been attempts by company representatives and equipment operators to force entry, accompanied by pressure from certain local officials urging the community to “stand down” or “allow operations to proceed.” These actions were carried out without genuine consultation, without the Indigenous Peoples’ Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, and in direct violation of their collective rights.
These recent incidents cannot be separated from the broader timeline of violations committed against the people of Dupax del Norte. In August 2025, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) granted Woggle Mining Corporation, a UK-based subsidiary of Metals Exploration Inc., an exploration permit covering 3,100 hectares across the barangays of Bitnong, Inaban, Mungia, Parai, and Oyao. This permit was issued despite unresolved environmental concerns and without the FPIC of the affected Indigenous communities, reflecting a grave neglect of the mandates of both MGB and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
In response to this unjust permit, residents and organizations established the people’s barricade on September 17, 2025, asserting their right to defend their ancestral lands. Instead of addressing the community’s concerns, the state escalated repression. On October 17, 2025, the barricade was violently dispersed under the order of Nueva Vizcaya Regional Trial Court Branch 30, penned by Judge Paul R. Attolba Jr., and enforced by police forces and masked individuals. The ruling favored the interests of Woggle Corporation and threatened residents with contempt should they continue to resist.
The repression deepened on January 13, 2026, when the Philippine National Police (PNP) enforced the Writ of Preliminary Injunction, again prioritizing corporate demands over Indigenous rights. Rather than addressing the community’s legitimate objections to the questionable exploration permit, the law was used to justify the entry of mining personnel and equipment into ancestral lands.
Residents have also documented surveillance of leaders, threats of legal action, and warnings of possible dispersal. These tactics mirror the broader pattern of harassment faced by Indigenous Peoples resisting land grabbing and extractive projects across the country. Despite these pressures, the community has remained firm, maintaining the barricade through collective vigilance, rotational guarding, and the leadership of elders, women, and youth.
These developments underscore that the barricade in Dupax del Norte is not merely a reaction to a single incident, but a defense against a long-standing system of development aggression that prioritizes profit over people, and extraction over ecological balance. The community’s stand is an assertion of Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination, grounded in customary law, ancestral stewardship, and the responsibility to protect the land for future generations.
We also reiterate these violations are also rooted in the destructive framework of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, a law that grants sweeping privileges to large-scale and foreign mining corporations while undermining Indigenous Peoples’ rights, environmental safeguards, and democratic participation. For nearly three decades, this law has enabled the aggressive entry of extractive projects into ancestral lands, weakened regulatory oversight, and justified the militarization of communities resisting land grabbing. Panaghiusa stands firm in opposing the Mining Act of 1995 and joins Indigenous communities nationwide in calling for its repeal and the creation of a rights-based, people-centered, and ecologically grounded mining policy that genuinely protects ancestral lands and future generations.
Panaghiusa recognizes the people’s barricade in Dupax del Norte as part of a nationwide movement of Indigenous Peoples’ resistance. Communities mounting barricades are united by a shared experience of militarization, corporate encroachment, and state neglect, but also by a shared commitment to defend their lands, cultures, and futures. The situation in Dupax del Norte echoes the long history of environmental plunder in Nueva Vizcaya, including the devastation caused by OceanaGold in Didipio—another case where state institutions failed to protect Indigenous communities and instead enabled destructive mining operations.
Moreover, the people’s barricade in Dupax del Norte is also a frontline of climate justice. The lands under threat are not empty spaces for exploitation. They are watersheds, forests, and ecosystems that sustain entire communities and contribute to the country’s climate resilience. The defense of these territories is inseparable from the defense of our collective future.
We condemn all forms of intimidation, coercion, and state-enabled pressure directed at the community. Any attempt to dismantle the barricade or criminalize its defenders is a violation of constitutional rights, the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), and international human rights standards. Government agencies must uphold their mandate to protect the Indigenous Peoples and not serve as instruments for extractive interests.
Panaghiusa calls on local and national authorities to immediately halt any actions that endanger the safety and rights of the communities in Dupax del Norte. We urge civil society organizations, international allies, and human rights mechanisms to closely monitor the situation and hold accountable those who perpetuate violations. The community’s struggle deserves not only solidarity but active support in resisting the continued intrusion of Woggle Mining Corporation and the state forces enabling it.
The people’s barricade in Dupax del Norte stands a living expression and an assertion of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to ancestral lands and self-determination, community care, and intergenerational responsibility. It is a testament to the courage of a people who refuse to be forcibly displaced, and a reminder that the defense of ancestral lands is a defense of life itself.
Panaghiusa reaffirms its full support for the communities of Dupax del Norte. Their struggle is just. #
Reference:
Rikki Mae Gono
National Coordinator
Panaghiusa Philippine Network to Uphold Indigenous Peoples' Rights
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