Dipolog City - The DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI), headed by Bishops of Dipolog, Ipil, Ozamiz, Pagadian, Iligan and Marawi reaffirms last month the alleged lies of TVI Resource Development Philippines, a Calgary Canada based mining firm.

DCMI has refuted the company’s repeated claims to the Mineral Development Council (MDC) under the office of the Philippine President that it has released a half-truth and baseless accusation against the company for unauthorized demolition of the house of farmers in Mount Canatuan, Tabayo Siocon Zamboanga del Norte, two-months ago.

In a letter signed by DCMI Executive Director Charles Alferez addressed to Under Secretary Soledad M. Cagampang-Decastro, Executive Director of MDC said, its information published in the internet were simply the true and factual circumstances of the inhumane eviction of the farmers couple and it strongly stand by the information and the issues raised by its partners in Manila.

The letter said, TVI Resource Development claims that the farmer called Galves Family is a formerly small-scale miner but not helpless farmers.

But their being former small-scale miners do not negate the fact that they were in helpless farmers, Mr. Alferez in his letter argued.

“What made them helpless was the fact the demolition of their humble abode was done under the cover of darkness and without court order while surrounded by a large number of TVI heavily armed special citizen armed forces geographical unit active auxiliary (SCAA) who eventually manhandled them”, the letter explains.

On the other hand, they are no longer small scale miners as their mining activities were completely stopped by TVIRD in the year 2003, but farmers who after obtaining the consent from the legal and legitimate holder of ancestral domain Timuay Jose ‘Boy’ Anoy cultivated the piece of land that they were occupying, letter said.

Alferez on his letter explains, that a day before the house of the victims of demolition was eventually demolished the surroundings vegetations where destroyed and bulldozed and made an island out of their house.

The letter claims that the traditional, legal and legitimate holder of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) is Timuay Jose “Boy” Anoy and not Erdulfo Comisas as claimed by the company.

“Moreover Timuay Boy Anoy is the true TIMUAY and leader of the Subanon communities in Mount Canatuan not because he was elected to be so by the community that he represents, but anointed by tradition, because he possesses the true and direct blood line of a descendant of the Apo Manglang, their revered ancestor” Alferez explains in his letter.

Mr. Erdulfo Comisas the letter said has been known in the community to be elected by the association that he represents under the supposed auspices and facilitation of TVIRD. But the association he represents does not represent the Subanon.

TVI claims that the Siocon Subanon Association Inc. (SSAI) was responsible for the dismantling of the house of the farmers and not TVI upon the recommendation of the Multi-Partite Monitoring Team (MMT), the letter said.

But if it were not TVIRD that was responsible for the dismantling of the house of the farmers why then was the heavily armed SCAA deployed against the unarmed civilians during the demolition and why were the heavy equipments of the company used in bulldozing and levelling the house of the couple to the ground, the letter asked.

The letter narrates that TVI cited the resolution of the Commission on Human Rights issued on June 10, 2005 and the resolution of the Provincial Prosecutor’s office that excused TVIRD from being tagged of committing human rights violations when its SCAA Noel Manggubat fired his firearms towards the picketers that caused injuries of the picketers on March 17, 2004.

But letter argues that even if the Commission on Human Rights and the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office had legally exonerated TVIRD on human rights violations, these did not conceal the moral culpability of those who caused injuries to unarmed picketers as a result of the irresponsible “warning shots” by fired Noel Mangubat, company’s SCAA as ordered by Ret. Col Valentino Edang.

The incident did not also dispel the doubts of many of the true intention of the warning shot that was fired to the ground and not to the air, letter said.

By: Tito Natividad Fiel, Program Coordinator, DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI)

The letter lamented that any ordinary person who could witness the incident can easily say that what happened to the farmer couple was highly immoral, illegal, malicious and inhumane, whether or not TVIRD had a hand in the demolition can only be deduced from the circumstances that surround the incident.

The people of Siocon and the rest of Zamboanga del Norte as well as the church cannot stand by idle when ordinary people like the farmer couple are easily deprived of their constitutional right of abode and of their livelihood, and especially when their cry of redress will only fall on deaf ears of most government authorities, the letter added.