Opens Hot Line for public and NGOs
TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) has formally requested the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) and the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct an inquiry into the recent events wherein members of the Subanon Indigenous Peoples (IP) community acted to dismantle the shanty of a former small-scale miner couple who refused to cease and desist from occupation of the Ancestral Domain (in contravention of the provisions of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act), after two and a half years of negotiations and an invitation to join the community in their new settlement.TVIRD initially published details of this story on its website on June 26, at http://www.tvicanatuan.com/article.php?id=34 . However, the Church-based DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI) based in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte has internationally published news releases contrary to the facts and quoting the affected couple who accused TVI of the action, on the one hand, and of human rights abuses on the other. In the interest of transparency, TVIRD is publishing on its web site both the DCMI news releases and the facts as they are known to the Company (see below). TVIRD is also requesting a retraction of the news releases from web sites that have carried it to date.
“We feel that the independent investigations will prove both that the IPs acted within their rights and that the security personnel deployed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines did nothing improper in the way they intervened to prevent any injury on both sides,” said TVIRD President Eugene Mateo.
“For the IPs’ part: after a long process of traditional mechanisms, including deliberation by the Tribal Council, meetings with the offending couple, and even an offer for them to join in to the new settlement that TVI is providing for the community at Tanuman, the IPs eventually decided to exercise their rights under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act. These rights include the right to development and management of their natural resources, the right to regulate entry of migrants, the right to protect the Ancestral Domain against encroachment, and most notably the right to give Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) to anyone, including farmers, miners, mining companies, churches and NGOs, before they can enter, occupy, or use Ancestral Domain land.”
Attorney Mateo also announced that NGOs and other interested groups may contact 09162531339 for information, questions and issues about TVIRD.
DCMI stated in their news releases that their representatives had attempted to call two TVI executives during the incident, but neither of the executives received calls nor “missed calls” at the time.
“It’s not in anyone’s interest – not ours, not even the NGOs’, and certainly not the public’s – for such erroneous information to be published, without due diligence on the part of the NGO or without `the other side of the story’,” said Attorney Mateo. “Advocacy groups play an important role in our society, in order to ensure that the public is fully informed. But Democracy depends on NGOs being responsible just as mining companies must be responsible.”
“We hope these initiatives will help,” he added.
TVIRD is also posting the two DCMI news releases, and the Company’s efforts to present the facts as available. In the attached document (please click here) the DCMI News Releases are carried on the left hand side, and TVIRD’s comments on the right.
On a separate but similar note, DCMI has distributed a “Primer on TVIRD” in the Zamboanga Peninsula. Unfortunately, like the DCMI News Releases, the document (published in the Visayan) also contains a significant amount of incorrect information. TVIRD has prepared a “Primer on the Primer” to assist DCMI and set the record straight. Readers can access both documents (English version) through this link .
