CABUYAO CITY, Laguna — The dismantling of a barricade in Brooke’s Point, Palawan has renewed calls from environmental and Indigenous rights groups. They stressed that the global demand for transition minerals must not come at the expense of ancestral lands and human rights.

For nearly three months, Pala’wan Indigenous residents of Sitio Linao, Barangay Ipilan maintained a community barricade to block heavy equipment from entering portions of their ancestral domain covered by the Infanta Nickel Project. On June 29, the barricade was dismantled in an operation involving the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), and other government agencies.

Residents rejected the NCIP order that led to the operation, arguing that the mining project proceeded without their genuine Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). They also reported that a child of one of the community leaders was injured during the dismantling.

The Infanta Nickel Project, operated by Calmia Nickel Inc. under MacroAsia Mining Corporation, covers more than 1,100 hectares across the villages of Ipilan, Mambalot, and Maasin. The project lies adjacent to the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve known for its biodiversity and critical watersheds.

Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) condemned the dismantling, describing it as another instance of state institutions siding with mining interests over Indigenous Peoples.

“There can be no just transition if Indigenous Peoples are displaced and environmental defenders are silenced,” said Kalikasan PNE National Coordinator Cathleen De Guzman.

The group called for the suspension of destructive mining activities in ancestral domains, an independent review of the project’s FPIC process, and the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination.

Kalikasan PNE also linked the incident to a broader pattern of attacks against environmental defenders, including militarization, red-tagging, surveillance, criminalization, and judicial harassment accompanying mining expansion across the country.

The organization warned that the Marcos Jr. administration’s push to expand mining for critical minerals, alongside partnerships with foreign governments through initiatives such as Pax Silica, could further open biodiversity hotspots and Indigenous territories to extraction in response to foreign demand.

The Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED) expressed solidarity with the Pala’wan community, saying that the struggle in Brooke’s Point reflects the growing pressure faced by Indigenous and rural communities across the region as governments pursue minerals needed for the global energy transition.

APNED urged ASEAN member-states to strengthen protections for environmental defenders and Indigenous Peoples as existing regional commitments remain inadequate despite escalating threats.

“The struggle in Brooke’s Point is the struggle of all Filipinos,” De Guzman said, urging the public to stand with the Pala’wan people in defending their ancestral lands and the country’s remaining ecological frontiers. (RTS, DAA)

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