Subanons eagerly await TVIRD’s Copper-Zinc Project

11/13/2008



A continuation of development that began with company’s Gold-Silver operations, say IPs

The cold winds are coming on early in Canatuan, an indication
that the Christmas season is near. The chirping of cicadas at the nearby rainforest
is fading. Soon, this remote mountain village will be cast in darkness and silence
will fill the air. The day is almost over, but not for Nanida Limbang. The area
leader of the Siocon Subanon Women’s Association, Inc. (SSWAI) is taking
mental notes of her talking points for the meeting she will conduct with her
fellow members the following day.

She has a compelling reason to be excited about the meeting. She was tasked
to break the good news: the Sulphide (Copper-Zinc) Project, the next phase
of TVIRD’s mining operations in their ancestral domain, will proceed
with its commissioning in mid-November. This welcome development, Limbang
says, augurs well for the next generation of the Subanon indigenous people
of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.

Nanida
Limbang and grandson John Bernard: “TVIRD is heaven sent.”

Limbang’s enthusiasm for the Sulphide Project is shared
by an overwhelming majority in her tribe. Recently, she joined a Subanon delegation
that asked the Siocon Mayor Ceasar Soriano to endorse the Project to the Municipal
Council, which he did. After a thorough review, the Council gave its unanimous
approval for the Project to proceed.

“Nanida even joins tribal leaders in patrolling the Sulphide
Dam site to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering the area while construction
of the copper-zinc tailings impoundment facility is ongoing,” Thess Limipin,
manager of TVIRD’s Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO),
says.

“Hulog ng langit (heaven sent),” is how Limbang
describes TVIRD, which explains her all-out support for the Sulphide Project.
“I highly appreciate what the company has done for my family and fellow
Subanons,” she opines. “My daughter Elenie was able to finish her
Computer Science degree because of the company’s help. I have seven children,
but because of poverty – I earn very little from my small sari-sari (variety)
store – only Elenie was able to finish a course, which she would not have
been able to do if the company wasn’t there. Now she’s a trainee
in TVIRD. Hopefully, she’ll be hired soon.” (Elenie will be a truck
scale operator when the Project starts operating).

Regino
Tumangkis: the young of Canatuan are supportive of TVIRD because “we
do not want small-scale mining to return.”

Regino Tumangkis, the shy but articulate president of the Subanon
Youth Organization, on the other hand, says the young people of Canatuan are
fully supportive of TVIRD because “we do not want small-scale mining to
return and desecrate our land with their dangerous mining methods and risky
tunnels.”

The 4th year Criminology student of Universidad de Zamboanga
adds: “We were just laborers during the small-scale mining days. Our bosses
were ‘outsiders’ (people from outside Canatuan), yet they wielded
power over us because our parents were not schooled. We were paid with low salaries.
Canatuan Creek was contaminated with mercury and cyanide chemicals. Trees were
indiscriminately cut. In contrast, TVIRD offered better job opportunities with
better pay. It built schools, provided scholarships, and opened a health clinic.
These are enough reasons for youths like me to support TVIRD.”

Fernandez Anda, a member of the Subanon Council of Elders,
shares Regino’s views. “We received nothing from small-scale miners,
or from some groups who oppose mining,” says Anda, who received training
on rice terrace farming from TVIRD. “I do not want our rivers to be polluted
because we eat fresh water fish. When I am not farming, I go fishing in the
river with members of my family.”

Fernandez
Anda with daughter Rayza: “We received nothing…from some groups
who oppose mining.”

Equally excited about the Sulphide Project is Sisa Medianero.
While her husband was once engaged in illegal small-scale mining prior to TVIRD’s
coming to Canatuan, she says she looks forward to the Sulphide Project as this
would mean that her daughter, Geraldine, will be able to finish her studies
as a company scholar.

According to Limpin, TVIRD gave scholarship privileges to 26
poor but deserving Subanon youths in 2008. Two of those scholars finished their
midwifery course and are now reviewing for their licensure examinations this
month. She said this program, along with other programs under CReDO’s
Quadrants of Development – Responsive Education, Sustainable Livelihood,
Health and Sanitation, and Infrastructure – spelled out in the company’s
government-approved Second 5-year Social Development and Management Plan, will
continue when the Sulphide Project gets underway.

These
streamers, produced and put up by local Subanon groups at strategic locations
in Canatuan, say it all.

“Tribal leaders in Canatuan are now preparing themselves
to make their own development plans for their ancestral land,” Limpin
adds. “This will be embodied in their Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development
and Protection Plan that will become the bible for any development-related
activities within the Subanon homeland.”

A little over seven months after the decommissioning of TVIRD’s
successful Gossan (Gold-Silver) Project, everybody in Canatuan, employees
and residents alike, are gearing up for what promises to be yet another fruitful
resource development undertaking via the Sulphide Project. Excitement and
anticipation are reaching a fever pitch.

Boy
Patoh (left) and Sisa Medianero: Eagerly waiting for the Sulphide Project
to start.

Bonifacio Patoh, president of the Siocon Subanon Association,
Inc. (the legal representative of the Canatuan ancestral domain title holders),
is positive that the Sulphide Project will pick up where the Gossan Project
left off in the drive towards sustainable development for his people through
responsible mining: “The entire membership of our organization is excited
over the prospects of the company’s next phase of operations. That’s
what we have been eagerly waiting for these past months!”

In the meantime, Limbang brings out the blouse and skirt
she will wear for the meeting. She must look good when she breaks the good
news. (Lullie Micabalo)