URGENT ALERT: Mining pushes through in Palawan, local resistance rises
The Barricade at Linao, Brooke’s Point Palawan
Yes to Life No to Mining calls for the immediate withdrawal of Calmia Nickel Inc. from private indigenous lands in Palawan
Calmia Nickel Inc. (CNI) has crossed every line. At dawn on October 1, heavily armed guards illegally entered private coconut land in sitio Linao, Brooke’s Point, fencing it with barbed wire to force their way into the uplands — land that is part of the ancestral domain of the Pala’wan people.
Indigenous landowners immediately built their barricade, refusing to let mining equipment advance. Within hours, dozens of Pala’wan families gathered in solidarity. Vice Mayor Mary Jean Feliciano, SB Member Jaymart Naigue, former IP councillor Victor Colili, Church leaders, and civil society stood with them.
Calmia’s rush uphill is already destroying decades-old coconut groves, uprooting fruit trees and threatening the primary forest next. The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has been alerted as communities witness their livelihoods being bulldozed.
Company armed mining guards at the barricade
Pala’wan representatives from Linao and nearby barangays are now demanding transparency from Calmia and the pro‑mining IPDO BICAMM regarding royalty funds — questions that remain unanswered. But the violations run deeper:
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Calmia is operating without a Mayor’s Permit.
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Mining activities overlap a CADT area application, where indigenous communities hold legal rights.
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Tenements intrude into the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL).
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FPIC processes led by NCIP were not based on consensus, as required by the Indigenous Peoples Right Act (IPRA law), but on majority voting — a direct violation of customary law.
Once again, NCIP, the agency meant to defend Indigenous rights, is siding with the oppressors.
Global solidarity is growing. The Rainforest Rescue petition against mining in Palawan and Brooke’s Point is nearing 49,000 supporters.
Coconut plantation being flattened by Calmia
Since 2016, mining permits in Palawan have allowed 321,066 trees to be cut or earth‑balled — a devastating trend worsening water scarcity as El Niño intensifies across the Philippines.
It is time for the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) to uphold its mandate, and for DENR–MGB to revoke Calmia’s permit before more irreversible damage is done.
Defending the Pala’wan people and one of the Philippines’ last great forests is not optional — it is imperative.
Defending the Barricade
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