Philippine community blocks entry of large mining firm

Jan­u­ary 19, 2010
The com­mu­ni­ty of Anis­la­gan on the island of Min­danao has suc­cess­ful­ly blocked the Philex min­ing com­pa­ny from enter­ing their lands.

Anislagan vs PhilexJan­u­ary 19, 2010
The com­mu­ni­ty of Anis­la­gan on the island of Min­danao has suc­cess­ful­ly blocked the Philex min­ing com­pa­ny from enter­ing their lands.

Accord­ing to a press release from the Legal Rights and Nat­ur­al Resources Cen­ter-Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC-CdO), near­ly the entire com­mu­ni­ty gath­ered to greet Philex, the largest min­ing firm in the Philip­pines, with a makeshift check­point they put togeth­er, on Jan­u­ary 11, 2010.

The com­pa­ny was plan­ning to com­mence work on a “liveli­hood train­ing cen­ter.” How­ev­er, “The Philex 6‑vehicle con­voy backed out after they failed to pass through the thou­sand res­i­dents of Anis­la­gan,” states the LRC-CdO.

To rein­force the check­point, the com­mu­ni­ty formed into a human a human bar­ri­cade, leav­ing the com­pa­ny with nowhere else to go

“Women and chil­dren here are ready any­time to defend our land. This land is where we sur­vived. We should fight for it!” said Riza­li­na Lis­bos, a moth­er of four, who was on the front line of the bar­ri­cade.

Pro­vid­ing some back­ground, the LRC-CdO explains: “Philex start­ed its actu­al min­ing oper­a­tion in the adja­cent Barangay (vil­lage) of Tima­mana, Tubod, Suri­gao del Norte in the 1st quar­ter of 2009. Philex’s oper­a­tion in Tubod, also known as the ‘Bayu­go Project’, start­ed as ear­ly as 1999 for their explo­ration activ­i­ties. There was strong oppo­si­tion from the Tubod peo­ple until the min­ing com­pa­ny start­ed their com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions projects, like liveli­hood, drainage improve­ment, sports activ­i­ties etc. After that peo­ple start­ed to begrudg­ing­ly agree to the min­ing project.”

“How­ev­er, the adja­cent vil­lage of Anis­la­gan sus­tained their oppo­si­tion to min­ing for almost ten years, led by Anis­la­gan Ban­tay Kalikasan Task Force (ABAKATAF), which is com­posed of mul­ti-sec­toral and inter­faith groups in the vil­lage.”

“Anis­la­gan pro­vides irri­ga­tion to rice field in their vil­lage and to adja­cent villages.We don’t need a liveli­hood train­ing cen­ter inside our vil­lage from a min­ing com­pa­ny. What for?” states Mr. Ormega, the new pres­i­dent of ABAKATAF. “We have an exist­ing self-sus­tain­ing and com­mu­ni­ty liveli­hood here. The min­ing com­pa­ny already affect­ed our irri­ga­tion, our rivers, and even to our water sup­ply from their Bayu­go project and now they are propos­ing a liveli­hood cen­ter.”

If the pro­posed “liveli­hood cen­ter” is the insult, than the min­ing project is the injury—and its bit­ter­ly iron­ic: If min­ing in the region goes ahead as planned, it would destroy the com­mu­ni­ties’ liveli­hood and their nat­ur­al resources.

For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it: http://saveanislaganwatershed.blogspot.com and http://lrcksk.org