Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) yesterday lauded the decision of the Nueva Vizcaya court junking the petition for permanent injunction filed by Oxiana Philippines Incorporated (now owned by Australia's Royalco Resources) against 24 indigenous people's leaders from Kasibu town.
According to Save the Valley Serve the People Movement convenor Abe Almirol, Judge Godofredo Naui on Monday dismissed the petition for permanent injunction sought by the defunct Oxiana Philippines, Incorporated 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 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).
Kalikasan PNE previously condemned Oxiana's action as 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.
"We laud this decision of the court. This proves that Oxiana's run-of-the-mill SLAPP suit is baseless and only meant to bully the community into inaction and fear," said Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator for Kalikasan PNE.
"This is definitely good news for the Philippine struggle to defend our national patrimony. This development will be brought to the attention of other environmental organizations and advocates from 13 countries here at the Mines and Communities (MAC) strategy conference in London ," Bautista said.
Bautista is currently attending the five-day Conference led by MAC, an international electronic network established in 2001 (website may be accessed at http://www.minesandcommunities.org/).
Kalikasan PNE hopes that the case will mark a precedent for other existing SLAPP suits, Bautista said. "We also hope that other SLAPP cases against environmental advocates will be dismissed. These includes Oxiana's petition to hold Kasibu Mayor Romeo Tayaban in contempt filed last month and the libel case filed by Lafayette Mining against the research NGO Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils) ," Bautista said.
According to Save the Valley Serve the People Movement convenor Abe Almirol, Judge Godofredo Naui on Monday dismissed the petition for permanent injunction sought by the defunct Oxiana Philippines, Incorporated 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 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).
Kalikasan PNE previously condemned Oxiana's action as 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.
"We laud this decision of the court. This proves that Oxiana's run-of-the-mill SLAPP suit is baseless and only meant to bully the community into inaction and fear," said Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator for Kalikasan PNE.
"This is definitely good news for the Philippine struggle to defend our national patrimony. This development will be brought to the attention of other environmental organizations and advocates from 13 countries here at the Mines and Communities (MAC) strategy conference in London ," Bautista said.
Bautista is currently attending the five-day Conference led by MAC, an international electronic network established in 2001 (website may be accessed at http://www.minesandcommunities.org/).
Kalikasan PNE hopes that the case will mark a precedent for other existing SLAPP suits, Bautista said. "We also hope that other SLAPP cases against environmental advocates will be dismissed. These includes Oxiana's petition to hold Kasibu Mayor Romeo Tayaban in contempt filed last month and the libel case filed by Lafayette Mining against the research NGO Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils) ," Bautista said.
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