QUEZON CITY — Mining-affected residents of Kasibu and Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya marched yesterday to the central offices of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), demanding the revocation of the exploration permit granted to North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC). The action capped months of tension in Kasibu, where communities maintained a barricade against the entry of drilling equipment tied to the company’s exploration project.
The demonstrators, composed of villagers from Kasibu and Dupax del Norte, their legal counsel, religious groups, KATRIBU, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response Towards Ecological Development (KIRED), and Kabataan Partylist, first gathered at the MGB Central Office’s North Avenue gate. before proceeding to the DENR compound for a follow-up program and dialogue.
The protest targeted the June 25, 2025 exploration permit covering roughly 4,456 hectares of land in Kasibu that NLMRC sought to explore for gold, copper, and other minerals. Community leaders and support groups said the drilling operations threatened farms, water sources, homes, and ancestral domain claims, and were being pursued without genuine free, prior, and informed consent from affected indigenous peoples.
Outside the agencies’ gates, indigenous protesters carried out a symbolic action, spearing mock logos of NLMRC, Woggle Corp., DENR, and MGB to dramatize what they called the communities’ firm rejection of destructive mining and the government offices that cleared the way for it. Environmental advocates linked the Kasibu struggle to broader anti-mining campaigns in Nueva Vizcaya and criticized what they described as a pattern of criminalization and harassment of environmental defenders.
Atty. Fidel Santos of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said the groups had “put on record the communities’ demand: revoke NLMRC’s permit and stop trampling on their rights.”
Cathleen De Guzman of Kalikasan PNE added that “DENR and MGB had granted permission for environmental destruction while defenders faced threats for protecting land and life.”
Kim Falyao, national coordinator for Bai Indigenous Women underscored that “mining in ancestral lands without genuine consent amounted to dispossession, backed by red-tagging and militarization.”
Church worker Leah Valencia of Promotion of Church Peoples Response stressed the continuity of faith-based solidarity, saying church people “stood with indigenous communities because defending creation meant defending the poor.”
Photo by Viggo Sarmaggo
At the DENR action, residents and youth groups highlighted lived experience and the wider implications of what they called “environmental plunder” in the name of critical minerals.
Mela Llamado of YACAP argued that there was “no just transition in critical minerals built on plunder, displacement, and sacrificed communities.”
Siklab Youth’s Epphine Falyao delivered the synthesis, declaring that “from Kasibu to Dupax, the message was one: defend the land, defend the people, and stop mining greed.”
Organizers from Kalikasan PNE and the Defend Nueva Vizcaya Movement said the July 14 march signaled that opposition to the Kasibu exploration project remained strong and that mining-affected communities, along with their allies, intended to sustain both legal and mass actions until the permit was revoked and the barricades could be lifted on the communities’ own terms.#
