Philippines: Resisting Peasants Defend Road Blockade Against Hundreds of Repressive Forces

Featured image: Digitally enhanced picture of the road blockade in Kasibu, Philippines. Source: PRWC

On October 30, hundreds of residents of Kasibu, Nueva Viscaya, successfully thwarted attempts by the Philippine National Police to carry out a demolition. The attempt came through a temporary restraining order issued by the Regional Trial Court based on a petition filed by the North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation (NLMRC) and the Bugkalot Confederation, Ang Bayan reports.

At 10 a.m. on October 30, hundreds of police officers with riot shields began rushing the barricade, attempting in vain to remove the bamboo and barbed wire, as the residents kept successfully repelling their attacks. In the end the police withdrew without achieving their goal of opening the road for the NLMRC.

This restraining order was issued on October 27, against 57 resisting individuals who are participating in the barricades in Kasibu, and were issued to the barricaders by the local sheriff, who did not acknowledge the order, and maintained the barricade. The sheriff resorted to hanging the order on a tree nearby. The restraining order declares the road blockades on the Paquet-Pao Municipal Road and the roads of Pao, Catarawan, Kakidugen and Paquet as prohibited.

Since the residents erected the blockade, NLMRC have been forced to suspend their operations until September, and have reportedly lost more than 8.3 million PHP (around 131,517 USD).