GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Even as Diocese of Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez called on all sectors to always resort to peaceful means of confrontation, the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has renewed its warning to Sagittarius Mines, Inc.(SMI) to abandon its huge copper and gold project otherwise the firm should brace for violent attacks.

The communist rebels earlier admitted storming the exploration base camp of Sagittarius in remote Barangay Tablu in Tampakan South Cotabato last New Year's Day, where at least P12 million worth of facilities were burned.

"The Church in general and the Diocese of Marbel in particular never condone any violent means of trying to settle any dispute or differences," the bishop earlier said.

"While we called on our faithful and all sectors to always resort to peaceful means of confrontation, we also urged the Sagittarius management to rethink their presence in the region," Bishop Gutierrez said.

"Previous statements of the Diocese of Marbel cited that the presence of large-scale mining would affect our peace and order situation. Any immoral activity breeds social ills," he added.

Dencio Madrigal, chief of the Valentin Palamine Command of the NPA's Far South Mindanao region, stated that the communist rebels have been conducting a social investigation on Sagittarius in pursuit of their objective to put a stop "to the wholesale plunder and destruction of the nation’s patrimony."

"(The) number one accountable for the plunder and destruction of our land and waters is the Arroyo ruling clique. It has brazenly facilitated the entry of... Xstrata-SMI and gave them blanket authority to exploit our natural resources and repatriate profits with little or no regard for whatever constitutional provisions left in the protection of our patrimony," the rebel leader claimed.

The massive deposit of copper and gold in Tampakan is pursued by Sagittarius Mines, Inc., a local company that has global mining player Xstrata Copper, based in Brisbane, Australia, as top investor and another Australian firm Indophil Resources NL as its partner.

Mr. Madrigal said that in abeyance to the people's court processes and rulings, they may be forced to take the necessary steps on certain "incorrigible individuals who have been duly warned but whose crimes continue to inflict irreversible damage on our people, our land, and our waters."

He warned that the NPA will continue to conduct direct punitive measures on Sagittarius to pressure the company to abandon the project.

But in an apparent anticipation of violent attacks from the NPA rebels, the company, which is still in the exploration stage, has hired the services of Catena Security, Inc., an affiliate of England–based Group 4 Securicor, one of the world's leading security firms.

Rolando S. Doria, the firm's regional and local affairs superintendent, said that Sagittarius' decision to award the security contract to Catena starting this March was to professionalize the security measures in the mining company.

Roy D. Antonio, Sagittarius senior coordinator for corporate affairs, earlier said that more than 100 guards will be hired, mostly from the local communities, and eight new security guard posts will be established in the firm's tenement which includes the towns of Columbio in Sultan Kudarat and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.

Datu Neraldo "Dot" Capion, B'laan tribal leader of Bong Mal in Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, in an earlier interview, said that there were B'laan residents who helped the communist rebels perpetrate the attack last January 1, even if they are not regular combatants of the leftist underground movement.

"Some of those who took part in the incident even wore t–shirts marked with the words SMI. Some even shouted in the B'laan vernacular," said Mr. Capion, claiming those residents who took part were disgruntled workers of the company.

A source within Sagittarius, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, also said that some of the residents who took part in the raid came from sitio Lam–alis in Barangay Datal Blao in Columbio. Datal Blao is part of the mines development of Sagittarius.

"They were those who were not given regular position [despite working for the company for years]. They were disgruntled because those who were given regular positions came from afar," the source added.

Last December, top investor Xstrata Copper released a new estimatethat pegged resources at 2.2 billion tons, up 10% from the last estimate declared in April 2006.

The upgraded measured, indicated and inferred resource totals 2.2 billion tons at a grade of 0.6% copper and 0.2 grams per ton gold and contains 12.8 million tons of copper and 15.2 million ounces of gold using a 0.3% copper cut–off grade, the company said in a statement.

The new mineral resource, which includes 24,700 meters of drilling conducted in 2007, also includes estimated average grades for molybdenum of 70 parts per million.

Previous estimates pegged resources at two billion tons, containing 11.6 million tons of copper and 14.6 million ounces of gold at a 0.3% copper cutoff grade.

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