Environment `watchdogs’ applaud TVIRD

Multipartite Monitoring Team says firm complies with environment standards

More than four years after its creation — and seven months
following the end of TVIRD’s Gossan (Gold-Silver) Project — the Canatuan
Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT) congratulated the company for successfully
maintaining the development-environment equilibrium and for strictly adhering
to the principles of responsible mining in this ancestral domain of the Subanon
indigenous people.

“TVIRD has complied with the requirements contained in
the Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR),” says Forester Rey Jalandoni, representing
the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) of the DENR –
Siocon.

“So far, all the results of the water analysis indicate
that water flowing from the Canatuan and Lumot creeks as well as the Mambong
and Lituban rivers show no contamination of cyanide,” Boslon Danduh, a
Muslim member of the Siocon Municipal Council, points out. His observation is
shared by Inocencio Tolentino, the Council chair of the Committee on Environment.
Cyanide is a chemical used in the extraction of gold and silver, which TVIRD
produced from Canatuan from mid-2004 until April this year.

Impressed with the reforestation project of the company, Marcelino
Gargar, the representative of Zamboanga del Norte Governor Rolando Yebes, urged
TVIRD to continue planting trees with the same intensity and passion it demonstrated
during its Gossan operations. A licensed forester and law graduate, Gargar wants
TVIRD to further re-green the company’s mining concession area “to
show all Filipinos that mining, if done responsibly, is good for the country.”

As its name connotes, the MMT is the monitoring arm of the
Mines Rehabilitation Fund Committee (MRFC), created by the Mines and Geosciences
Bureau (MGB) as mandated by the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The MMT is tasked
to make certain that mining companies in the Philippines follow laws, particularly
those provisions on environmental protection, to the letter.

The Team is composed of people from the government and private
sectors, including church-based organizations. The Siocon municipal government
has representatives from the executive and legislative branches on the MMT,
while the Zamboanga del Norte provincial government is represented by the operations
officer of the Zamboanga del Norte Environmental Management Office (ZaNEMO).

Also represented are the MGB, the Environmental Management
Bureau (EMB), and the provincial and town offices of the DENR. The barangay
chairman represents Tabayo and a member of the Knights of Columbus sits in the
MMT as the representative of the Roman Catholic Church. The Subanons are also
well-represented in the body. TVIRD, meanwhile, is represented by managers of
its Environment Department, as well as its Community Relations and Development
Office (CReDO).

Calling themselves the “watchdogs”, the MMT members
regularly monitor the implementation of the Environmental Management and Enhancement
Program of the company. It also keeps an eye on the social development programs
and projects implemented by CReDO in TVIRD’s host and impact communities.

Fidel Bontao, TVIRD Environment Department manager, says the
MMT kept a close watch on all the tailings impoundment facilities of the company
during the previous Gossan operation. “The members’ vigilance allowed
us to immediately identify potential problem areas and to directly provide solutions
that we quickly acted upon. That is the beauty of engagement and dialogue.”

“The greatest challenge for me as a member of the MMT
is how to religiously do my job,” says Dr. Eriberto Canama from the Siocon
Mayor’s Office. “Our town is one of the bailiwicks of anti-mining
groups in the province, so the possibility for MMT members to be the object
of harsh criticisms is always there if environment-related problems arise in
Canatuan.”

“We have been able to avoid that by being serious about
what we were tasked to do,” Bontao adds. “And we intend to continue
doing that moving forward.”

Jose Marlowe Echem, an engineer, also from the Mayor’s
Office, agrees. He says this was also the reason why, for instance, he scrutinized
the Gossan Dam design and its construction. “I did it not only because
it was the marching order from my boss, the town mayor, but also because it
is my sworn duty to protect my town from environmental degradation.”

Edsel Cichon, a lay leader of the Protestant Alliance Church
of Siocon and a business sector representative in the MMT, for his part, says
he is committed to guard his town and its people against environmental disasters.
This, according to him, is one of the reasons he is active in the Team’s
activities.

MMT members see to it that water quality analyses are done
regularly in the bodies of water within Canatuan, including its downstream tributaries,
such as the Mambong, Lituban, and Siocon rivers.

“Water samples are brought for analysis on a regular
basis to independent laboratories in Manila and to the MGB laboratory in its
Central Office,” Bontao explains. “MMT members are always furnished
with copies of the analyses results.”

Danduh says that apart from regularly checking on the bodies
of waters within and around Canatuan, the MMT also monitors TVIRD’s mine
pit, the siltation ponds just below the pit, as well the company’s various
anti-soil erosion measures.

“We sit down with members of the TVIRD management, usually
with the general manager, to present our recommendations and to get the company’s
commitment,” says Dr. Canama. “So far, all our recommendations have
been acted upon by the company.”

With TVIRD now gearing up for full production and shipment
of copper concentrates this January, the MMT will continue to see to it that
this mining firm lives up to expectations regarding the protection of the environment
as it had when the company was producing gold and silver.

“Environmental responsibility is non-negotiable,”
Jay Nelson, TVIRD Vice President for Environment and Civil Works, who also sits
in the MMT, says. “Our company’s future depends on how well we balance
the objectives of business growth, sustainable development, and environmental
protection.” (Lullie Micabalo)