Thursday, February 15, 2007 Mining firm gives package to community By Ryan Rosauro Ozamiz correspondent
DIPOLOG CITY---Mining company TVI Resources Development Inc. (TVIRD) has recently announced its grant of financial assistance to a community in Siocon town of Zamboanga del Norte for setting up a potable water supply system.
In a news release, Felice Yeban, director of TVIRD's Community Relations and Development Office (Credo), said the assistance represents their first project under the company's Social Development and Management Program (SDMP), which earned government approval lately.
The 1995 Philippine Mining Act requires mining companies to allocate funds from its revenues for social development activities in communities affected by its operations.
The water system project will be established in Barangay Makiang, a predominantly Muslim community, which was once stronghold of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Makiang is among the barangays in, at least, three towns identified by TVIRD as the "impact communities" of its Canatuan gold-copper mine.
Impact communities are defined as such due to the company's use of its roads or to the relative location of these to the gold-copper project vis-à-vis watershed concerns. These include several communities in Siocon and Baliguian towns of Zamboanga del Norte and R.T. Lim town of nearby Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Makiang also lies within the 8,200-hectare ancestral domain of the indigenous Subanen tribe in the area covered by a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo personally awarded during a visit in Siocon over three years ago.
According to Yeban, the water system project is among the community development interventions identified by residents during consultations in the course of drafting the SDMP.
Yeban related that some 70 percent of the materials for the construction of the water system were already delivered to Makiang, and work is slated to begin shortly.
The project will be undertaken by village residents themselves under the supervision of barangay officials and with technical assistance from TVIRD staff, he added.
Imam Awalaluh Danduh expressed gratitude to TVIRD for their enjoyment of the "social dividends" of the mining operation.
Apart from community development investments through the SDMP, TVIRD also pays royalty to the Subanen tribe who holds a CADT over the area.
The company said it paid P6 million royalty in 2005 alone, and provided some 325 jobs to the indigenous people. Through projects undertaken under the SDMP, Yeban expects the company to cultivate stronger relationships with residents of the mine's neighboring communities.
TVIRD's mine operation in Canatuan and its exploration activities in other parts of Zamboanga del Norte province are strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic diocese and a group of Subanen people, citing grave environmental, economic and social costs.
