Firm has no fight over mining rights

This is to clarify issues raised against TVI Resource Development Phils. Inc. (TVIRD) in the Across the Nation report titled “Fight over rights to Zambo mineral area steps up” (Inquirer, 7/30/12).

TVIRD is not a Canadian mining firm but a Filipino mining corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1995. It is an affiliate of TVI Pacific Inc. of Alberta, Canada.

It has no fight over mining rights with any entity because it has exclusive legal rights to Sitio Balabag in Barangay Depore, Zamboanga del Sur, contrary to the statement of the province’s police chief, Supt. William Manzan, that the intensified violence and tension in the area were “due to the conflicting claims of TVIRD and the community of small-scale miners over the place.”

TVIRD has exclusive mining rights as an assignee of a mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) covering 4,779 hectares issued by the government to Zamboanga Minerals Corp. in 1997.

Government mining regulators also strengthen TVIRD’s legal rights. First, the  Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Mining Board’s Resolution 001-0705,S-2012 last July 5 denied a petition by the Monte de Oro Small-Scale Miners Association (Mossma) to declare the area a “minahang bayan,” or small-scale mining site.

Second, the provincial government under then Gov. Aurora E. Cerilles issued on June 24, 2010, a cease and desist order (CDO) against Mossma and other illegal miners to “stop all illegal mining operations and  withdraw all their equipment because of the massive and wanton abuse and destruction of the environment.” Unfortunately, this CDO has been ignored by illegal miners.

Third, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, through OIC Albert Johann Jacildo, issued another CDO last April 13 because “illegal mining activities in the region have become rampant and alarming as [these have] not only depleted government mineral resources but [also] caused unnecessary violence.” This order covered Mossma, which did not have the requisite people’s small-scale mining contract in violation of Republic Act 7076.

The CDO also banned carbon in pulp gold-processing operations without the required mineral processing permit required under the law, another illegal Mossma operation.

Finally, President Aquino’s Executive Order 79 defines areas for small-scale mining. TVIRD’s mining project, which is covered by an MPSA, is not among those areas where small-scale mining is allowed.

We further take exception to the unfounded statement of Superintendent Manzan, as reported, that “armed TVIRD employees fired on a group of small-scale miners who were hauling equipment to their mining area in Purok 7.”

Police reports state that TVIRD security patrol and personnel were attacked by illegal miners and their laborers in two incidents three hours apart from each other last July 25, and that unidentified men torched  the vehicles owned by a company supplier three days later.

—EUGENE T. MATEO,

president,

TVI Resource Development

Phils. Inc.