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First Posted on Inside Mindanao: October 8, 2006

Desecration of a Sacred Mountain
By Ellen Red

SIOCON, ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE-Mount Canatuan cannot be missed.

This is the only mountain in the highlands of the town of Siocon where huge portion of the mountain is color brown, a result of the open pit mining of TVI Resource Development (Philippines) Inc., an affiliate of a Canadian mining company TVI Pacific Inc.

In a news release dated August 9, 2006, TVI Pacific Inc. reported that for the first six months of 2006, the Canatuan mine generated Canadian $4,784,737.

The company described the Canatuan mine as a "Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS)-a deposit type that is mined to a high degree of operational and financial success in many parts of the world."

The company added, "VMS deposits are typically sources of copper, zinc, and frequently contain gold and silver, which is consistent with the make up of the Canatuan deposit."

In its official website www.tvipacific.com, the company said they "acquired" the Canatuan mine in 1994. The area claim by TVI is also the claimed ancestral domain of the Subanon in Siocon.

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, a law which was signed into law in 1997 by former President Fidel Ramos, recognizes the ownership of the Subanon and other indigenous people in the Philippines over their land.

In 2003, the Subanon in Siocon received their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title, covering about 8,000 hectares- portion of which includes the area claimed by TVI.

At the foothills of Mount Canatuan and surrounding mountains, many Subanon, the ethnic group in the area, are crying foul over the mining activities of the company.