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BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya: Four lawmakers were
detained for almost half an hour inside a police checkpoint near the
border of this province and Quirino while on their way to a remote
upland village for an inquiry over alleged abuses of a foreign firm
conducting a
large-scale mining operation in the area.
Rep. Carlos Padilla of Nueva
Vizcaya was accompanying his three colleagues, Rep. Solomon
Chungalao of Ifugao and Party-list Representatives Teodoro Casiño
and Luzviminda Ilagan, on their way to Barangay Didipio, Kasibu town
here when they were flagged down and “detained” by the police on
Saturday.
“This is a direct affront on
the House as well as on the duly-elected officials of this province.
If they can do this to members of Congress, if they can do this to
the governor and other provincial officials of Nueva Vizcaya, they
can do this to anybody,” said Padilla, describing their being held
up by the police as an act of “illegal detention.”
The solons’ convoy of around 30
vehicles, which also includes local officials led by Gov. Luisa
Lloren Cuaresma, were on their second and last leg of a two-day
House inquiry over reports of abuses committed in two of the
province’s mining villages when they were “accosted” by police
troops manning a checkpoint along the provincial road in Barangay
Debibi, Cabarroguis, Quirino, without “clear reasons.”
Padilla said they were
“detained” there for almost 30 minutes before they were allowed
to pass through the police checkpoints en route to Barangay Didipio,
the site of the national government-backed $117-million Didipio
Gold-Copper Project of the Australian firm Oceana Gold Philippines.
But the police only allowed
passage after Padilla and the local government executives started to
feel uneasy and begun to lose their tempers over the “blatant
insult” accorded them.
The solons, all members of the
House Committee on Cultural Communities, passed Resolution 594
seeking an inquiry over alleged abuses committed on tribal villagers
by Oceana Gold in their operation of the Didipio project, one of the
only two large-scale mining ventures approved since the enactment of
the 1995 Mining Act.
“Never have I ever been
detained at a checkpoint anywhere, whether in Nueva Ecija or Bulacan.
What an irony that in my native region on the way to my province, I
and my colleagues have to suffer this indignity,” said Padilla.
Chungalao, Casiño and Ilagan
vowed to bring the “horrible experience” before the House
plenary, and to summon those responsible for their “illegal
detention.”
“It makes me feel that the
various agencies of the national government are currying favor with
the company,” Padilla said. “If they can do this to members of
Congress, if they can do this to the governor and other provincial
officials of Nueva Vizcaya, they can do this to anybody,” said
Padilla.
The House move came amid calls by
the Church led by Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena for the suspension
of all mining-related activities here as a result of last week’s
killing of Didipio barangay chief Paul Baguilat, a known supporter
of the project.
The killing of Baguilat, who
regained the village chairmanship in last year’s barangay
elections over a known anti-mining rival, came in the wake of a
standoff between the provincial government and Oceana Gold, which
started after Cuaresma issued a “cease-and-desist order” against
the mining firm for its refusal to pay quarrying fees.
Cuaresma ordered the police and
the National Bureau of Investigation here to go to the bottom of the
incident and arrest the perpetrators of the crime as soon as
possible.
“I will never allow martial
rule in Didipio nor tolerate all these abuses of Oceana Gold
management who think they are kings and already consider Didipio as
their own kingdom. I will mobilize through legal means all resources
of the provincial government to eject this mining company,”
Cuaresma said.
--Leander C. Domingo
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