“We condemn the charges filed against Josie Guillao by MTL. This is another classic example of a SLAPP suit (Strategic Legal Action Against Public Participation), a form of litigation filed by usually powerful entities against less financially-capable critics with the intention of intimidating and silencing them in the course of a lengthy and costly legal battle ,” said Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

BY LISA ITO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 37, October 21-27, 2007

A London-based mining firm has earned the ire of Philippine environmental advocates after filing charges of grave slander against a Kankaney community leader in Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya.

Barangay Runruno Landowners Association (RULANAS) Secretary Josie Guillao is temporarily out on bail after being arrested and detained without a preliminary investigation last 18 October on charges of “Grave Slander,” filed by mining firm MTL Exploration Company lawyer Rosalie Soriano (Criminal Case No. 1307) at the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Villaverde and Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya.

Guillao, a native of the Kankaney tribe and a mother of three, is a vocal critic of MTL’s exploration operations in Barangay Runruno, Quezon.

MTL, which operates along with FCF Mining Company in Runruno with a two-year exploration permit, is the Philippine partner of London-based mining company Base Metals PLC. The mining exploration was opposed by by the residents and small-scale miners of Runruno, which was previously declared a geohazard area.

SLAPPed

According to reports from Cagayan Valley-based Save the Valley, Serve the People Alliance for the Environment, the warrant for Guillao’s arrest was issued October 17 and was served 4 p.m. the following day at Guillao’s residence by a certain Inspector Bongayan from the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Quezon.

Guillao, accompanied by RULANAS Chairman Venancio Matidio, spent the evening at the PNP jail in Quezon. The Court fixed a P6, 000 ($135.62 at an exchange rate of $1=P44.34) bail for her temporary liberty.

Environmental activists from Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) denounced the slander raps filed against Guillao, calling it a form of legal harassment.

“We condemn the charges filed against Guillao by MTL. This is another classic example of a SLAPP suit (Strategic Legal Action Against Public Participation), a form of litigation filed by usually powerful entities against less financially-capable critics with the intention of intimidating and silencing them in the course of a lengthy and costly legal battle ,” said Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

Bautista also expresssed concern over the rise of SLAPP suits against anti-large-scale mining advocates in recent years. Another recent example was the P10 million ($225,529) libel case filed by Australian-owned Lafayette Mining against the Board of Directors of green research non-government organization (NGO) Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Philippines) last July.

“We condemn how one of our own fellow Filipinos can be harassed by all sorts of charges by mining firms at the drop of a hat, while errant foreign mining firms which have caused so much environmental destruction and social problems, such as Australia’s Lafayette Mining in Rapu-Rapu, Albay, continue to operate scot-free and with little accountability to mining-affected communities,” Bautista added.

The slander charges against Guillao came after a recent legal victory against a SLAPP suit filed by another Australian mining in the neighboring municipality of Kasibu, Bautista noted.

Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 37 earlier this week junked a petition for permanent injunction filed by Oxiana Philippines Incorporated (now owned by Australia’s Royalco Resources) against 24 indigenous people’s leaders from the nearby Kasibu town, which is also threatened by foreign large-scale mining exploration operations.

RTC Branch 37 Judge Godofredo Naui on Monday dismissed the petition for permanent injunction sought by the defunct Oxiana Philippines, Incorporated (now registered under Philippine laws as Royalco Philippines, Inc. last March 31, 2007) to permanently bar 24 leaders from barricading the roads going to their exploration area in the villages of Pao and Kakidugen of Kasibu town. The defendants in the case docketed as Civil Case No. 982 are village chiefs Mariano Maddela of Pao, Felimon Blanco of Paquet, Orlando Binoya of Dine, and 21 other leaders and members of the Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response for Ecological Development (KIRED).

Geohazard zone

Guillao and RULANAS have been actively opposing the explorations by MTL, citing threats to the environment and the community’s long-term livelihood as well as lack of consultations with affected communities as reasons to reject the mining operations.

Runruno’s communities could face environmental disasters as a result of MTL’s explorations, a rapid environmental appraisal prepared by the CEC-Philippines, Defend Patrimony alliance, and Kalikasan PNE during a fact-finding mission last August 30 to September 2 indicated.

CEC-Phils notes that Brgy. Runruno has been experiencing more landslides, the most recent of which came with typhoon Paeng, after the exploration operations started.

While MTL Company claimed to be pursuing rehabilitation of the exploration site in Brgy. Runruno by planting camote and runo grass along the slopes of the mountains, CEC-Phils attested that full and effective rehabilitation would require much more than this current practice.

If MTL’s exploration operations continue, it will also create two adjoining valleys filled with large-scale mining operations. The Runruno exploration project is located almost adjacent to an existing gold and copper mining project by New Zealand-owned Oceana Gold in Barangay Didipio. Oceana Gold is the current holder of the original 37,000 hectares of Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) granted by then Pres. Fidel Ramos to Climax-Arimco.

Support from London

Guillao’s case was among the human rights violations against environmental advocates that Kalikasan PNE and the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) brought to the attention of the 3rd International Strategy Conference of Mines and Communities (MAC) in London this week.

Bautista is currently gathering support for the issue from other members of MAC, an international electronic network established in 2001, based in Africa, India, Indonesia, Canada, U.S.l and the European Union. Bautista added that environmental groups would be setting up a legal fund for SLAPP suit victims.

“We environmental activists will call upon the Filipino community in London and the United Kingdom to denounce the current mining liberalization policy of the Arroyo administration, which is causing more social and economic displacement among their fellowmen back home,” Bautista said.

Bautista also challenged Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to take action and probe the rising incidence of SLAPP suits against environmental advocates.

“The number of environmental activists facing SLAPP suits especially from mining firms is on the rise under the Arroyo administration. Yet up to now, we have yet to see any concrete action from the DENR on this alarming trend,” Bautista said. (Bulatlat.com)