ZAMBOANGA CITY, 2 November 2006 — About 3,000 villagers have flocked to the mountain town of Bayog in Zamboanga del Sur to welcome delegates from a Canadian mining firm, which plans to expand its operation in the southern Philippines.

TVI Resource Development Inc. is currently operating a gold mine inside a 500-hectare area in Canatuan Mountain in Siocon town, Zamboanga del Norte province, and it has begun exploration projects in Bayog.

Mayor Mary Ann Lucero-Cartalla said not only is TVI welcome to operate a mine in Bayog; it could also work on an area 10 times bigger than what Siocon has offered.

“We welcome responsible mining in Bayog. TVI will bring us not only responsible mining, but employment and progress as well,” the mayor told Arab News.

Environment and top government officials had previously cited the mining firm for having one of the cleanest and safest mining facilities in the country.

Mayor Cartalla said her constituents were also supporting TVI’s entry into their town and have said so when the firm’s executives visited the town center on Tuesday for a dialogue with villagers.

TVI President Eugene Mateo previously said that the company invested more than 500 million pesos and is currently exploring for gold and other minerals in the hinterland village of Balabag.

Mateo said it would take them at least one year and a half to complete the exploration in Bayog town to see if it is feasible to mine in the area.

“We have a lot of things to do in Bayog town, but we can guarantee that the environment would not be affected or polluted by our operations. We follow strict international mining standards to ensure safe and responsible mining,” he said, adding that some 650 people, including 50 Filipino geologists and engineers, are now working for TVI in the exploration project.

Mateo said they were also planning to explore gold in Compostela Valley province on the eastern side of the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

“This is really an opportunity for us to have a decent employment. We really want TVI to stay here for good so that many poor people and our children will benefit from all that investment,” said 51-year old coconut farmer Oscar Sumaling.

“The TVI also helped us in the past when landslides buried several houses here and we owed them a lot,” he said.

In February, TVI led a rescue operation in Bayog after landslides triggered by heavy rains buried houses in one village that killed at least 5 people.

The mayor hosted the dialogue, telling the villagers the importance of investments to a small town like Bayog, where farmers still transport their agricultural products using carabaos and horses.

The town, about 160 kilometers northeast of Zamboanga City, has a population of about 26,000 mostly Subanon natives scattered in 28 villages.

Rocky Dimaculungan, head of the TVI delegation and spokesman of the company, said they always follow strict international mining standards.

“We have opened our doors to any groups that wanted to see how we operate. TVI follows strict international mining standards,” he said.

TVI started its mining operations in 2004 in Siocon, nearly a decade after it obtained its Mineral Production Sharing Agreement with the government in 1996. It is currently into gold and silver mining and plans to extract copper and zinc by next year.

Small-scale miners who previously operated in Mount Canatuan dumped toxic chemicals like mercury and cyanide into Siocon’s waterways, threatening the ecological balance.

Small-scale mining persisted for years until TVI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Siocon Subano Association, Inc., (SSAI), the largest group of indigenous people in Zamboanga del Norte, in October 2001 to develop their ancestral domain.

SSAI is recognized by the National Commission on Indigenous People as the legal representative of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) holders in Canatuan.

TVI also entered into a production sharing agreement with the Filipino government in 1996 — even before the Subanon people obtained their CADT under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act a year later.