OceanaGold Mining’s demolition of Didipio houses declared illegal

ress Release
June 19, 2008

OceanaGold Mining’s demolition of Didipio houses declared illegal

Mining company OceanaGold Phils., Inc's demolition of the indigenous peoples houses in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya is illegal.

The Regional Trial Court in Bayombong has declared this in its order saying that the OceanaGold’s act of demolition is “tainted with irregularity and contrary to law.” OceanaGold carried out its demolition activities in contravention of Didipio residents' constitutional right to property and not to be deprived thereof without due process of law.

“This means that while the case is pending, defendants OceanaGold and those acting on its behalf, including the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Mines and GeoSciences Bureau (MGB), may not demolish the houses of all our clients,” says Atty. Grace Villanueva, lead counsel of this case, from the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC/Friends of the Earth-Phils.).

The order is a response to the complaint filed by the lawyers of LRC on behalf of 13 Ifugao households living in Barangay Didipio,municipality of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya. In its petition, LRC questioned the legality of the demolition of houses in Barangay Didipio, as the mining company has not produced a special order of demolition issued by the regular courts of law; and seeks for preliminary injunction to prevent the demolition of the houses of its clients.

“This decision of the court is a welcome respite for the community members who have been opposing the large-scale mining operations of the OceanaGold in Didipio,” says Atty. Grace Villanueva. “While this decision may be a temporary relief for the Didipio families, this gives them hope in the law, that they can still be protected from unjustified taking of their properties by any other person, individual or corporations.”

OceanaGold, an Australian mining company, argued that they were losing millions of pesos every day in the delay of their operation because of the preliminary injunction issued by the court. The court, however, recognised that the injunctive order may cost losses to the mining company but it cannot allow the loss OceanaGold may inflict “in tampering with the Constitutional right of every person to due process of law for it is not quantifiable in terms of monetary value.”

As of April 2008, about 187 houses had already been demolished by the wrecking crew of the company since it started in December last year. In a fact-finding mission held in the area last month, LRC, along with the other members of the fact-finding team, found out that those whose houses have been destroyed were not paid in full, if at all, or were not paid the fair and just price of their property and the value of the damage caused them. Furthermore, the demolitions took place without a clear plan for relocation or resettlement.

The demolition activities of OceanaGold have become very aggressive, to the point of being violent. Highlighted in the mission report was the incident where a Didipio resident has been shot by the company security guard during a demolition on Black Saturday this year. Emilio Pumihic was shot at close range while he was trying to stop the demolition of a neighbor’s house, whose owner was inside taking a nap. Pumihic was hospitalised for several days for his gun shot injuries.

“Throughout these controversies besetting OceanaGold, the Secretary of the DENR has been very protective of it. We then ask Secretary Atienza why does he continue to protect a company which violates constitutional rights of the people? What is more important than the protection of people’s basic human rights?” LRC asked.

The Didipio gold-copper project, the first Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) in the country has been marred with a lot of controversies involving social acceptability and human rights violations. It also faces a string of legal challenges. The case filed by Mayor Romeo Tayaban on behalf of the municipal government of Kasibu is up for decision by the Supreme Court for bypassing the authority of the local government to give consent to the mining project. There was also the recent conflict between the OceanaGold and the provincial government of Nueva Viscaya involving the collection of local taxes.

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for more info – Ronald (LRC Luzon) at rgregorio@lrcksk.org, (+63)(0) 917‐548‐1674
(63 2) 926‐4409, (63 2) 434‐4079,
www.lrcksk.org / www.lrcluzon.multiply.com