08/29/2026
It comes down to this question, What’s more important, mining profits or people’s lives?
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122202672266696155&id=61570884677617&mibextid=wwXIfr
I honestly don't know how many times we are supposed to talk about Dupax before people finally start listening. I have written about Dupax del Norte before.
I have followed what happened there. I have watched people hold the line. I have watched them defend their homes, their land, their livelihood. I have watched this drag on for months.And now it is happening again.
I saw the videos on my feed tonight.
And honestly, I don't even know what to say.
You can hear the elders crying.
You can hear people begging.
Not asking for money. Not asking for special treatment. Not asking the government to give them something.
They are asking for mercy.
They are asking the police to stop.
They are asking to be heard.
And in the middle of the night, the police come into their community and arrest people.
Twelve ordinary citizens.
Twelve people who, from what is being shown and reported, were standing their ground over a fight that has been going on for months.
And I keep coming back to the same question:
How the hell did we get to a point where the people have to beg the police for mercy because they are defending their own homes?
The police are supposed to protect ordinary people.
That's what we're told.
But look at Dupax.
Look at who has the equipment.
Look at who has the lawyers.
Look at who has the permits and the institutional machinery behind them.
Then look at the people on the other side.
Farmers.
Elders.
Residents.
People whose greatest weapon is their willingness to stand in front of something they believe will destroy the place they call home.
The mining company involved is Woggle Corporation, an affiliate of FCF Minerals Corporation, whose exploration permit covers roughly 3,100 hectares.
And before anyone says, “May permit naman.”
That is exactly why this needs to be talked about properly.
Because a permit does not erase a community.
A permit does not make people's fears disappear.
A permit does not automatically make environmental concerns irrelevant.
And a permit certainly does not give anyone a moral license to treat residents like criminals for refusing to surrender their land without a fight.
This is also not some sudden dispute that appeared overnight.
The people of Dupax have been resisting this project for months.
There have been barricades.
There have been arrests.
There have been confrontations.
There have been legal battles.
There has been a Senate inquiry.
There have been questions about environmental compliance, consultation and FPIC. The MGB even suspended the exploration permit earlier this year.
And yet here we are.Still.Again.People crying in the streets.People being arrested.
People pleading with the authorities.So when someone asks me why the struggle of Dupax is taking so long, my answer is simple:
Because ordinary people are fighting something much bigger than a mining project.They are fighting the machinery that makes extraction possible.
They are fighting a system where corporations can keep knocking on the doors of government offices while communities have to physically put their bodies on the line just to keep a bulldozer from entering.
And that is what makes these videos so fu***ng difficult to watch.
Because you can hear the humanity in the voices.
You can hear people who are exhausted.
People who have been doing this for months.
People who probably just want to sleep in their own homes without wondering if the next knock on the door will be the police.
And still they stand there.
Still they resist.
Still they hold the line.
I don't know these people personally.
But I don't need to know them personally to understand what they are fighting for.
Because this isn't just about Dupax.
This is about what happens when we allow mountains to be reduced to mineral deposits.
When forests are reduced to timber.
When rivers are reduced to water sources for industry.
When land is reduced to an investment.
And when the people living on that land become nothing more than an inconvenience.
We've seen this story before.
Different province.
Different company.
Different mountain.
Same story.
First they tell the community that the project will bring development.
Then the community asks what happens to their water.
Their farms.
Their forests.
Their homes.
Their children.
Then comes the paperwork.
Then the lawyers.
Then the police.
And eventually, people who were simply trying to protect where they live are the ones being arrested.
That should make all of us uncomfortable.
Especially those of us who live in places where mining, quarrying, deforestation and land conversion are already threatening communities.
Because Dupax is not some distant problem happening to other people.
Their struggle is connected to ours.
If they lose their forests, we lose another forest.
If their rivers are destroyed, another watershed is gone.
If their community is displaced, another precedent is created.
And if we become comfortable watching ordinary people get arrested for resisting the destruction of their homes, then we've already accepted something far more dangerous than a mining project.
We've accepted the idea that some people's homes matter less than someone else's investment.
So yes.
Let us continue to stand with Dupax del Norte.
Share their stories.
Listen to their elders.
Listen to the people actually living there.
And don't let this disappear from our feeds just because the algorithm eventually gets bored.
Because the people of Dupax don't get to scroll away from this.
They wake up in it.
They sleep in it.
They live with it.
And tonight, some of them are crying because they are asking the very institutions that are supposed to protect them for a little mercy.
Maybe the least we can do is make sure they are not crying alone.
Stand with Dupax del Norte.
Their fight is not theirs alone.
