TENSION gripped Nueva Vizcaya’s mining sites anew, as tribesmen barricaded the site of an Australian mining company in their ancestral lands.

A barricade has been erected to block the impending entry of drilling equipment owned by Oxiana Philippines Inc. and its foreign partner Royal Co. Ltd. of Australia, in sitio Digyan, Pa’o, Kasibu town, since January 2, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) national coordinator Clemente Bautista said.

Bautista said tension grips the area and a bloody confrontation may ensue if the mining company insists on bringing in its drilling equipment into the ancestral lands of the indigenous tribes in Kasibu.

According to a Bugkalot leader, kagawad Mariano Maddela of barangay Pa’o, some 300 to 400 tribesmen from six barangays in Kasibu—Paquet, Dine, Biyoy, Catarawan, Kakidungen and Pa’o—are manning the barricade.

Despite the physical difficulty in reaching the barricade and the heavy rain in the area, this number is expected to swell up to 700 to 1,000 people if the mining equipment is brought closer, Maddela said.

The mining company’s equipment, which includes four bulldozers, two trucks and two drilling machines, are currently in sitio Makiboy, barangay Kakidungen.

It can be recalled that a barricade set up by Kasibu residents since July 2, 2007, in barangay Paquet has successfully blocked the entry of Oxiana’s drilling equipment into Pa’o.

Majority of the tribesmen in Kasibu are opposed to the impending exploration by Oxiana Philippines, Inc. in five barangays of Kasibu—Pa’o, Kakidugen, Paquet, Dine and Katarawan—under Exploration Permit RO2-0014, Maddela said.

The exploration permit was extended by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) up to June 2009 despite the opposition of the affected communities, he added.

The company is now trying to enter the target exploration site through the adjacent area of Yabbi in Dupax del Norte through a newly opened road leading to barangay Kakidungen, Maddela said.

“We are demanding a dialogue with the officers of Royalco, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples [NCIP], and the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] to formally voice out our opposition to the entry of Royalco mining in Barangay Pa’o,” Maddela said.

“We are also calling for a review of the free, informed and prior-consent process conducted by the NCIP. The NCIP claims that it has the consent of the Bugkalot tribes in Kasibu as its basis for allowing the mining company to operate. This is not entirely accurate. There are many other tribes in Kasibu who are not Bugkalots. And even among the Bugkalots, there is dissention and opposition to the mining operations. The barricade, for example, is set up in the area of Renato Enggo, first kagawad of barangay Pa’o and a full-blooded Bugkalot,” Maddela said.

Environmentalists from Nueva Vizcaya and Metro Manila, supported Maddela’s call fo ra stop to large-scale mining in Kasibu.

Allan Barnacha, spokesman for the Save the Valley, Serve the People Movement in Cagayan Valley, said that allowing large-scale mining in Kasibu and in surrounding areas would result in ecological devastation, particularly the siltation of the Cagayan River, a main source of freshwater and irrigation water for hundreds of communities.

“Nueva Vizcaya has established itself as the major producer of both tropical and temperate vegetables in Region 2, and currently derives revenues from vegetables and fruit orchards, especially citrus fruits,” Barnacha stressed. He added that Nueva Vizcaya is also considered as the “Watershed Haven of Region 2.”

Development plans for Nueva Vizcaya are focused on agriculture and ecotourism, and not on large-scale mining, he stressed.

“Mining was never considered as a primary or priority development strategy in Nueva Vizcaya’s 30-Year Provincial Land Use Plan, Medium-term Provincial Physical Framework Plan, Provincial Comprehensive Development Plan and Provincial Annual Investments Plans,” Barnacha said.

By continuing to make way for foreign and large-scale mining in Nueva Vizcaya, the administration is slowly killing the province’s most economically promising natural resources: its fertile agricultural lands and rich watersheds, he said.

Palace not worried about coup threat

Malacańang said on Tuesday that President Arroyo is pushing through with a weeklong trip to Europe and the Middle East, starting January 22, the supposed culmination date of an alleged plot to destabilize her administration.

THE Department of Health (DOH) has expressed relief that all barriers to the implementation of the revised Milk Code have been eliminated, as the Supreme Court (SC) barred milk companies from filing an extension to appeal its October decision.

HOPING the government will realize that the permanent or temporary removal of the 12-percent value-added tax on petroleum products spell big relief to consumers, Sen. Mar  Roxas II expressed optimism on Tuesday that the energy summit called by Malacańang will tackle his proposal to temporarily suspend the collection of VAT on oil products for at least six month.

TENSION gripped Nueva Vizcaya’s mining sites anew, as tribesmen barricaded the site of an Australian mining company in their ancestral lands.

AS more US troops are due to arrive in Mindanao for new joint military exercises starting February 18, a militant legislator called on the House of Representatives to immediately conduct a review on the continued presence and incidents of abuse of US soldiers in Mindanao under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

IN an attempt to address what he described as the moral degeneration of society as a result of the tragedies caused by abortion, child abuse, neglect and other forms of antilife and antichild acts, a legislator has filed a bill allowing the parents of unwanted babies to give up their children to the government without fear of arrest and prosecution.

PSYCHIATRISTS are concerned that the feminization of labor migration that has prompted fathers to take the role of mothers is causing a negative effect on children’s behavior.