The Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) strongly condemns the complicity of the Nueva Vizcaya Regional Trial Court Branch 30 and Nueva Vizcaya Police in the violent dispersal and arrest of individuals protesting against the entry of Woggle Corporation, a British mining company, which has threatened the right to land of communities and livelihood of agricultural workers in Dupax del Norte since August 2025. Consequently, among the people’s barricade composed of advocates and residents from various barangays in Dupax del Norte, anti-mining leader Florentino Daynos and 6 indigenous women and senior citizens were arrested on Friday, January 24, 2026, two of whom had fainted and required medical attention before imprisonment.

For the communities in Dupax del Norte, the reason for their struggle, protest, and barricade is clear: the Woggle Corporation harms their home, livelihood, and environment. Despite this, state forces and Woggle itself have answered it with hostility. As early as August 2025, Woggle uprooted trees in Sitio Keon, Brgy. Bitnong without authorization from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). On October 17, 2025, over a hundred uniformed police and masked individuals carrying shields and truncheons violently dispersed the communities’ human barricade and arrested three protesters.

Moreover, following the court order by Judge Paul Attolba Jr. on January 13, 2026, authorizing the dispersal and arrest of protesters, over 300 police officers, joined by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Highway Patrol Group (HGP), came to execute the Writ of Preliminary Injunction (WPI). Rochelle dela Cruz, 38, born and raised in Sitio Keon, had even reported receiving death threats from Woggle’s employees.

IOHSAD stands in firm solidarity with the people of Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, in their struggle to defend and save their land, livelihood, and environment from state-sponsored, foreign plunder through the people’s barricade. We strongly condemn the corporation and the state forces who have been complicit in harassing protesters, and call for the immediate release of the 7 individuals arrested on January 24.

We also urge the Marcos Jr. government, especially the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), to fulfill its rightful duty of protecting the welfare of its people in Dupax del Norte by revoking, without delay, the Exploration Permit (EP) of Woggle Corporation — which had been, from the very beginning, granted despite environmental and procedural anomalies.