Benguet police, locals clash over mine project

MANKAYAN, Benguet – Security has been tightened in this mining town after violence marred the serving of a writ of preliminary injunction against protesters of a gold exploration project on Monday.

Six Cordillera police officers including regional deputy intelligence head Supt. Chief Glenn Lonogan and Supt. Darnell Dulnuan were injured in a scuffle with residents from Barangay Tabio.

Local folks reportedly blocked nine provincial sheriffs who were supposed to hand down the court’s order to allow the Far Southeast Gold Project to fence off a private property of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) meant for drilling.

Three others – PO2 Neil Cabanse, Police Officer 1 Jhona Likinio and PO1 James Dang-ay, with the police officials were hit with stones and logs hurled by protesters.

Early Monday morning, court sheriffs were blocked by about 100 residents reinforced by militant group members. 

The court officers, policemen and officials from the Commission on Human Rights – Cordillera, led by Regional Director Harold Kub-aron tried but failed to forge any agreement with the protesters and were pushed away and pelted with rocks.

Henry Longay, chief sheriff, said they were there to enforce the court order by Regional Trial Court Branch 64 Presiding Judge AgapitoLaoagan to allow LCMC to fence the area in sitio Madaymen owned by the mining firm.

But the protesters insisted they will not end their blockade “until justice is done,” claiming they were unaware of the court move.

The Far Southeast Gold Project, a joint venture between LCMC and the South Africa-based Gold Fields Inc., started the drilling in the disputed area in Madaymen late December 2011.

But land claimants (two of the eight families laying claim to the land) with the help of some residents stopped the operations.

The protesters eventually built a shack in the area to secure the site and ignored court orders for them to vacate.

The protesters sought reprieve from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the NCIP issued a 20-day Temporary Restraining Order last March 14 but denied a petition for injunction on the protesters on April 14 and ordered the protesters to allow FSGRI to conduct its drilling activities.

The drilling is for exploratory purposes prior to FSGRI's plan to mine an ore body more than a kilometer deep and some areas in Mankayan already agreed for similar activities.