On the 41st People’s Cordillera Day, we hold our ground and continue our struggle for the present and future generations.
April 26, 2025
This year, threats to people, the environment, and livelihoods persist and intensify. With the push for renewable energy, mining has gained urgency due to the demand for “transition minerals.” The Cordillera, which the government still views as a resource base, is caught up in this global trend.
There are currently 106 large-scale mining applications in the Cordillera region, while ongoing operations continue to extract resources with destructive force. Among the most controversial is the Makilala Mining Company, owned by the Australian firm Celsius Resources, which targets barangays in Pasil, Kalinga. In March 2024, the Marcos Jr. administration granted the company a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA). This was followed by a ₱4.42 billion investment through the Maharlika Investment Corporation, public funds used to back a mining venture that endangers indigenous lands. In addition, 108 renewable energy projects have been approved in the region. These include one large wind farm, four geothermal plants, three solar farms, and 100 hydropower facilities. The government has prioritized nine hydropower investments, including two by Pan Pacific Renewable Power Philippines Corporation in Apayao. SM Investments Corporation is also pushing a 2,000-MW pumped storage project in Pudtol, Apayao—putting the 4th UNESCO Biosphere Reserve at risk. Large-scale mining and energy projects are being rebranded as “green solutions.” But the cost is high: massive excavation, deforestation, and the displacement of communities. These projects worsen landlessness and threaten food security. To secure corporate interests, state forces are deployed, often resulting in human rights violations. The impacts are routinely justified with the worn-out claim of development.
In urban areas, Baguio City suffers under a neoliberal development model that prioritizes profit. So-called “smart and green” initiatives often serve to normalize the privatization and corporatization of public services. These schemes increase living costs without meaningfully improving residents’ quality of life.
These regional developments reflect a global pattern–the exploitation of the climate crisis by corporations and powerful nations to push investments that benefit them. Local policies often protect foreign investors and big business interests, backed by government allies who are often landlords or political elites. This sustains the country’s export-oriented, import-dependent economy and its long-standing subservience to foreign powers.
Alongside environmental and economic plunder, the state has intensified its attacks on human rights and civil liberties in the Cordillera. Indigenous leaders and members of peoples organizations face increasing harassment through arbitrary designation, fabricated terrorist financing charges, constant harassment such as surveillance, unwarranted visitations from the military (i.e. ‘dumanon makitungtong’), and other forms of human rights violations. The state has weaponized the laws to criminalize dissent, branding activists, community organizers, as “terrorists” without due process. These acts are not isolated but are part of a broader campaign to silence resistance and retaliate against indigenous peoples for defending their ancestral lands and exercising their right to self-determination.
Still, communities continue to resist. In May 2024, small-scale miners from Sitio Dalicno, Itogon barricaded against expansions by Benguet Corporation and Razon’s Itogon-Suyoc Resources. In Sallapadan, Abra, residents of Sitio Ududiao blocked Yamang Mineral Corporation, owned by UK-based Metals Exploration. Their efforts led to the formation of a province-wide anti-mining coalition.
Baguio City, meanwhile, passed the Human Rights Defenders Ordinance, pushed by the mass movement, recognizing itself as a “human rights city.” This ordinance was a direct response to the relentless threats faced by activists and organizers in the region. Last year, Sitio Liglig in Lubuagan hosted over 1,500 delegates from across the Philippines and the world for the 40th People’s Cordillera Day.
With the 2025 midterm elections approaching, people continue the fight by supporting 11 senatorial candidates from the Makabayan Coalition, representing the most marginalized sectors of society.
This year’s theme echoes familiar but enduring calls. Some may dismiss them as slogans. But we repeat them because conditions remain unchanged. Rural communities still lack basic services. Political power remains concentrated among elite families and landlords. Until this changes, we will continue to assert our rights, persist in our struggle, and advance the politics of change.
We challenge all Cordillerans—and the entire Filipino people: Assert, Persist, Advance!