QUEZON, Nueva Vizcaya – Concerned indigenous peoples (IPs) of Runruno is Didipio of this province disclosed that emissaries of some government agencies have been allegedly threatening them that charges will be filed against them in relation to the alleged presence of illegal small-scale mining operations in their communities if they continue to air their grievances to the media.
Sources, who requested anonymity for personal and security reasons, claimed that for the past several days, emissaries from government regulatory agencies in Region 2 had been visiting them to inform the affected IPs of their initiative to re-open the stalled negations between them and the management of the FCF Minerals Development Corporation to reach a possible ‘win-win’ solution to the present impasse over the compensation for their properties that will be affected by the large-scale mining operation.
However, the sources claimed that what is ironic about their offer is that these emissaries are lacing their offer with an evident threat that if they continue to air their issues and concerns against the ongoing mining operations of the company, the said government agencies will be constrained to file charges of illegal small-scale mining against them.
The sources questioned the intention of the emissaries in frequenting their place and informing them of the possibility to reopen the stalled negations between the IPs and the company when they are at the same time obviously giving them threats and harassments that casts a cloud of doubt on the real intention of such initiative by the said emissaries.
According to them, what is peculiar with the current situation in their place is that personnel of the mining company are now allegedly going beyond their patented mining claim in the conducting demolition of their existing structures and the removal of agricultural crops among other improvements despite the existence of unsettled claims by the affected IPs, especially that a portion of the company’s working area belongs to the Gaddang tribe of the Cagayan Valley as earlier certified by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) provincial office.
The sources vowed that the continuous threats and harassments being employed against them will compel the filing of appropriate criminal and administrative charges against the officials of the government regulatory agencies who continue to tolerate and allow the mining company to pursue their alleged encroachments to their ancestral domain beyond their patented mining claims.
The sources assert they will not buckle down to the harassments and machinations being done by the mining company and their cohorts who happen to be officials and employees of government regulatory agencies as they will fight for what is right over their ancestral domain and that they will protect this from the illegal intrusions being done by the mining company amidst the existence of unsettled issues and concerns between the IPs and the company.
Earlier, the NCIP provincial office recognized that the Gaddangs of Nueva Vizcaya own over nearly a hundred hectares of land that are within the patented mining claims of the FCF Minerals Development Corporation that is why they are invoking the need for the company to first secure the required free and prior informed consent (FPIC) prior to the pursuit of the mining operations.