On this occasion of the International Indigenous Peoples day, we celebrate the continued defiance and resilience of the Filipino indigenous communities against the disregard and disrespect of their rights by the government, and the transnational corporations who make money off them.

Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center

Discrimination, Deprivation, Disenfranchisement, Displacement and Disintegration.  And Defiance. These describe the experiences of some 12,000 indigenous peoples here in the Philippines.  As the United Nations mark August 9 as the International Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we denounce the continuing violation of the indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral domains, and to their right to self-determination.  We deplore the utter disregard of the dissenting voices of the indigenous peoples, as they fight for their survival against the onslaught of the profit-raking industries, particularly the following greedy mining corporations  

The OceanaGold Philippines, Inc. which aggressively insists on its presence in Brgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, despite the strong opposition from the Ifugao communities.  The security guard of this Australian mining company has been accused early this year of being involved in the shooting of an Ifugao resident opposing the company’s demolition of houses.  This demolition has been  found “tainted with irregularity and contrary to law”  by the Regional Trial Court of Bayombong.  The Commission on Human Rights is slated to conduct its mission to look into the allegations of human rights violations of the OceanaGold.   

The Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI),  which is largely controlled by XSTRATA, an Anglo-Swiss mining company, has been causing disintegration of the B’laan communities, as well as stirring violence in the area of Tampakan, South Cotabato. Subject of opposition since the 1990’s, SMI has resorted to lies and bribery  to win the B’laans’ free, prior and informed consent.   This has caused division among the communities - between those who desire to pursue agricultural development of their areas, and those who are lured by promises of better lives by giving up their lands, and being unskilled workers of the company, with no security.  

The TVI Resource Development Inc., a subsidiary of Canadian TVI Pacific, has continued to desecrate the sacred Mt. Canatuan of the Subanons in Zambaoanga del Norte.  Its presence in Siocon has been marked with violent dispossession of land and properties of farmers living  in the community, and other string of human rights violations against opposing Subanons.  TVI is currently the subject of a complaint of discrimination at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination (UNCERD) by the Subanon of the Seven Rivers in the Zamboanga Peninsula and has been declared guilty of several crimes by the Gukom, the traditional justice system of the Subanons.   

We hold the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) responsible for its inaction on the complaints filed by the different indigenous peoples organizations against these three and other corporations; at worst, for being party to the disenfranchisement of IPs and causing division among their communities.  

We take the Arroyo administration to task to break the impunity with which these mining corporations continue to violate basic human rights of the Filipino indigenous peoples. 

On this occasion of the International Indigenous Peoples day, we celebrate the continued defiance and resilience of the Filipino indigenous communities against the disregard and disrespect of their rights by the government, and the transnational corporations who make money off them.   

To the women and men of the indigenous communities, our continued solidarity.
For the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center,
(LRC-KsK/Friends of the Earth-Philippines)

Judy A. Pasimio
Executive Director
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