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First Posted on Inside Mindanao (www.insidemindanao.com) on January 25, 2009
TVI Mining firm blasts Subanon sacred ground, damages properties
By Tito Natividad Fiel
SIOCON, ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE—TVI Resource Development Phils., a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company TVI Pacific has used explosives to blast another portion of Mount Canatuan.
The Subanon people in Siocon consider Mount Canatuan as their sacred place, a place where they can get herbal medicines, food, and other means of subsistence. Portion of Mount Canatuan is already denuded due to the open—pit mining conducted by TVI.
TVI has a government permit to mine about 500 hectares, portion of which is Mount Canatuan, in barangay Tabayo, Siocon town, Zamboanga del Norte. The Subanon tribe, on the other hand, has a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) covering about 8,000 hectares in Siocon. The CADT covers the entire mining area of TVI.
Police record, dated January 16 this year, shows that the blasting activities of TVI damaged primarily the residential house of the couple Julibeth and Rudy Miniao. The Miniao couple continuously resides at Mount Canatuan for almost 20 years—way before the coming of TVI.
The roof of the house of the Miniao couple was reportedly hit by a piece of rock which splintered from the blasting activities of TVI, police record shows.
A hand written statement of 23 farmers sent to the Municipal Council of Siocon on January 16 confirmed that a rock damaged the house of Miniao family.
In a statement, the farmers said that the blasting activities are being done near several residential houses of the farmers at Mount Canatuan.
The statement added that the blasting activities of TVI endanger the farmer residents.
Raul Purigay, a farmer in Tabayo, reported to the non—government organization called DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMII) that TVI officials asked them last December 12 to vacate their farmland, their home at Mount Canatuan as the company has scheduled to blast said area through the use of dynamite explosive for open—pit mining.
Timuay Jose "Boy" Anoy, the tribal leader of the Subanon in Siocon, said the blasting activities of TVI were done without the consent of the Subanon people.
End
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