By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ A Senate bill has been filed to make “Red-tagging” a criminal offense, pushing back against recent efforts and pronouncements of the police and military accusing certain individuals of being a member or supporter of the communist insurgency and terrorist organizations, often with little or no proof. …

By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ The president and chief executive officer of an Australian firm whose large-scale mining operations in Nueva Vizcaya have been halted after failure to secure renewal of its license has resigned, the company announced March 19. In a statement, OceanaGold Corp. announced that Mick Wilkes, president and…

By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ Environment and civil society groups on Saturday denounced what they described as a “rigged” hearing by the House committee on indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples that sought to investigate the alleged human rights abuses committed by an Australian mining firm in Nueva Vizcaya province. Anti-mining…

By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ A party-list lawmaker on Saturday denounced what he called “back-channel” talks among members of the House panel whom he accused of “sitting” on the application for renewal of the franchise of media network ABS CBN. Buhay party-list Jose “Lito” Atienza wondered what has been keeping the…

By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ Lawmakers belonging to the majority coalition on Wednesday met in what they termed as a “caucus,” a day after the executive department submitted to the House of Representatives the draft 2020 national budget and amid reports this has been laden with about P35 billion-worth of pork…

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — A regional trial court in this province on Thursday (July 25) denied the request of an Australian mining firm to continue its operations despite the lapse of its mining license and opposition from local host communities. In a 10-page resolution, Judge Paul Attolba, Jr. said OceanaGold…

By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ Environment and civil society groups on Friday slammed the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) for supposedly coming to the defense of a foreign mining firm and allowed it to resume operations despite the lapse of its 25-year mining license. Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said…

By Melvin Gascon @melvingasconINQ Residents and environment activists on Monday denounced Australian firm OceanaGold Philippines, Inc. for supposedly continuing its mining operations in Kasibu town in Nueva Vizcaya despite the lapse of its license on June 20. Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said OceanaGold has been conducting…