Mary Ann Lucero-Cartalla, mayor of a mountain town called Bayog in Zamboanga del Sur province in South RP, with Rocky Dimaculangan, of TVI, on Tuesday 31 Oct 2006. And villagers show up to welcome TVI delegates who visited Bayog town, where it is currently exploring gold and other minerals. (Mindanao Examiner)The current mayor of Bayog town, Mary Ann Lucero-Cartalla, says during a huge pro-mining rally Tuesday 31 Oct. 2006 the locals are all-out in supporting the Canadian mining firm, TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc., which is conducting exploration. She says the mining firm has provided jobs to many people in the town. More than 3,000 villagers attend the rally. (Mindanao Examiner MP4)
ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR (Mindanao Examiner / 01 Nov) – About 3,000 mostly farmers have flocked to the mountain town of Bayog in Zamboanga del Sur, south of the Philippines, to welcome delegates from a Canadian mining firm.
TVI Resource Development Inc. said it will expand its current operation in the southern Philippines and has begun exploration projects in Bayog town.
It is currently operating a gold mine inside a 500-hectare area in Canatuan Mountain in Siocon town in Zamboanga del Norte province, but the current mayor of the remote Bayog town, Mary Ann Lucero-Cartalla, said she has offered TVI almost 5,000-ha.
"We welcome responsible mining in Bayog. TVI will bring us not only responsible mining, but employment and progress as well," the mayor told the Mindanao Examiner.
She said the locals were also supporting the TVI and that about 3,000 people have flocked to Bayog to welcome the firm's executives who visited the town on Tuesday for a dialogue with villagers.
TVI president Eugene Mateo previously said that they have invested more than P500 million and is currently exploring for gold and other minerals in the hinterland village of Balabag.
Filipino environment and top government officials had previously cited the mining firm for having one of the cleanest and safest mining facilities in the country. Mateo said it would take them at least one year and a half to complete the exploration in Bayog town to see if it is feasible to mine in the area.
"We have a lot of things to do in Bayog town, but we can guarantee that the environment would not be affected or polluted by our operations. We follow strict international mining standards to ensure safe and responsible mining," he said, adding, some 650 people, including 50 Filipino geologists, are now working for TVI in the exploration project.
Mateo said they were also planning to explore gold in Compostela Valley in Davao province, southeast of Zamboanga del Sur.
"This is really an opportunity for us to have a descent employment. We really want TVI to stay here for good so that many poor people and our children will benefit from all that investments," said a 51-year old coconut farmer, Oscar Sumaling.
"The TVI also helped us in the past when landslides buried several houses here and we owed them a lot," he said.
In February, TVI led a rescue operation in Bayog town after landslides triggered by heavy rains buried houses in one village that killed at least 5 people.
The mayor was even more supportive and had hosted the dialogue, telling the villagers the importance of investments to a small town like Bayog, where farmers transport their agricultural products by buffalos and horses.
The town, about 223 km from Zamboanga City , has a population of about 26,000 mostly Subanon natives scattered in 28 villages.
Rocky Dimaculangan, head of the TVI delegation and spokesman of the company, said they always follow strict international mining standards. "We have opened our doors to any groups that wanted to see how we operate. TVI follows strict international mining standards," he said.
TVI started its mining operations in 2004 in Siocon, nearly a decade after it obtained its Mineral Production Sharing Agreement with the government in 1996. It is currently into gold and silver mining and plans to extract copper and zinc by next year.
Illegal miners who previously operated in Mount Canatuan dumped toxic chemicals like mercury and cyanide into Siocon's waterways, threatening the ecological balance. Illegal mining persisted for years until TVI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Siocon Subano Association, Inc., (SSAI), the largest group of indigenous people in Zamboanga del Norte, in October 2001 to develop their ancestral domain.
SSAI is recognized by the National Commission on Indigenous People as the legal representative of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) holders in Canatuan.
TVI also entered into a production sharing agreement with the Filipino government in 1996 -- even before the Subanon people obtained their CADT under the Indigenous People's Rights Act a year later. (Mindanao Examiner)
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