Manila, Philippines — The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) issued a strong call to government duty bearers, corporations, and the Filipino public to end the escalating pattern of corporate intimidation, ecological destruction, and legal harassment targeting Environmental Human Rights Defenders (EHRDs) across the country.
Communities and partner organizations of PMPI have long documented the severe impacts of extractive operations, including on Homonhon Island in Eastern Samar, where decades of large‑scale open‑pit mining have devastated a protected landscape of historical and ecological importance. While corporations extract nickel and chromite for foreign markets, local residents are left with polluted air, compromised water sources, and growing fears for their children’s future.
Instead of protection, those who resist such destruction face legal retaliation. Members of the Homonhon Environmental Advocates and Rights Defenders (HEARD) continue to confront injunctions, civil suits, and criminal complaints designed to silence community opposition.
This week, the pattern intensified. Bishop Jose Elmer Mangalinao of the Diocese of Bayombong, along with clergy and local land defenders, was named in a civil suit for opposing a 4,456‑hectare mining exploration project in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya. PMPI described the case as “a disturbing sign of how far corporate power will go to suppress peaceful, faith‑based resistance.”
“When a bishop is sued simply for celebrating Mass, offering prayers, and standing with Indigenous communities, the law has been severed from its moral foundation,” PMPI said.
PMPI urges government agencies, regulatory institutions, security sector, and the justice system to provide absolute and effective protection for EHRD’s, hold corporations accountable for environmental harm and violations, harassments, and ensure consultations and FPIC in local communities and ancestral domains.
“The law must serve life, not profit,” PMPI emphasized.
PMPI calls on extractive companies and corporate actors to stop weaponizing the legal system against communities, clergy, and defenders, cease operations that violate ecological limits, Free Prior and Informed Consent and community rights, and respect the Rights of Nature as a foundation of ethical business
“No corporation has the right to endanger the future,” the statement reads.
PMPI urges citizens, faith communities, youth, workers, and local leaders to stand with those who defend the Earth and reject narratives that criminalize environmental defenders’ actions, support frontline communities against corporate destruction, and to join movements advancing ecological justice and the Rights of Nature.
“When we defend Nature, we defend humanity. When we protect EHRDs, we protect the future,” PMPI said. PMPI asserts that protecting Nature is inseparable from protecting those who defend it.
“We are now witnessing a catastrophic role reversal where corporations enjoy greater protection than communities and ecosystems. This must end. The era of ecological justice must begin.”
Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI)
