URGENT ALERT: Stop Police Harassment and Intimidation in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya
Yes to Life No to Mining calls for the immediate withdrawal of all police personnel from Kasibu
Yes to Life No to Mining (YLNM), in solidarity with the barricading communities of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, strongly condemns the continued presence of the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the people’s anti-mining barricade in Barangay Paquet and calls for the immediate withdrawal of all police personnel from the area. We also call on the international community to echo these demands through their own statements of solidarity and by boosting the statements of those most impacted.
The Center for Environmental Concerns- Philippines describes the situation in their statement:
At around 11:00 AM on 5 August 2026, more than 30 PNP vehicles arrived at the community barricades in Kasibu under the leadership of Police Brigadier General Mariano C. Rodriguez, Regional Director of Police Regional Office 2, and PCOL Paul T. Bometivo, Provincial Director of the Nueva Vizcaya Provincial Police Office. According to local organization Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan (ANVIK), police officers demanded the removal of the barricades, claiming they were built on a municipal road. Residents maintained that the barricades stand on privately owned and titled land. Despite this, the PNP left seven armed police officers at the Paquet barricade while police units continued patrolling other barangays within the 4,456-hectare exploration area of North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC).
YLNM affirms the people of Kasibu and all communities’ right to say no to extraction on their lands and territories!
Yes to Life No to Mining affirms the people of Kasibu and all communities’ right to say no to extraction on their lands and territories. Extractive projects cannot move forward without consent and we see this as representative of a larger pattern of extractive development enforced through militarized intervention against peaceful resistance.
Environmental defenders take action at great risk to themselves and must be protected from criminalization. These defenders took up barricades in the context of a justice system that has failed to protect the environment or listen to the people of Kasibu and Nueva Vizcaya more broadly. This police harassment is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of intimidation that we, as members of the international community, denounce. We support the right of local Indigenous peoples and farming communities to determine what happens to their land, especially as mining interferes with local land uses and visions for livelihood.
This is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of harassment
It is especially disturbing to hear of SLAPP suits filed against community leader Lei Jin Dugay and lawyers Atty. Edgardo Balgos and Atty. Fidel Santos for their advocacy work. These are overt attempts to intimidate those who question NLMRC’s activities.
We echo the calls of the CEC and call upon the PNP to immediately withdraw all police personnel from the community, cease all acts of harassment and intimidation, and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and residents of Kasibu. We likewise call on other government agencies to heed the long-standing demands of affected communities by suspending NLMRC’s exploration activities and reviewing the validity of its exploration permit.
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