This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 9, April 2-8, 2006
Interfaith
Pilgrimage Holds Rites to Oppose Mining in Siocon For
two years, Timuay (tribal chief) Jose Anoy has not been able to set foot at his
home. Home is Mt. Canatuan, the most sacred place for the 2,000 Subanen people,
which has been occupied and encroached upon by the Canadian mining firm Toronto
Ventures, Inc (TVI) since 1994. But despair has not come over him: instead, he
now finds various groups supporting the Subanens’ fight against TVI.
BY
TYRONE VELEZ Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte
-- For two years, Timuay (tribal chief) Jose Anoy has not been able to set foot
at his home. Home is Mt. Canatuan, the most sacred place for the 2,000 Subanen
people, which has been occupied and encroached upon by the Canadian mining firm
Toronto Ventures, Inc (TVI) since 1994. Anoy said that the TVI has
prevented him from returning home because he refused to give consent for the
firm to mine 508 hectares located in the Subanens’ sacred land. “The company offered me
money before, and shares from their profits,” he recalled. “Accepting this
could have been easy, but being a Timuay, I remained firm for the sake of the
Subanen.” Taking this stand has made
the company to lay it hard on Anoy – driving him away from his own home. Since
then, TVI has taken over Mt. Canatuan, barricading the area with three
checkpoints. Despair has not come over
him. Instead, he now finds various groups supporting the Subanens’ fight against
TVI. Anoy’s group, the Apo
Manglang Glupa Pasaka (Apo Manglang’s Ancestral Land), together with religious
leaders from the Moro, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, and local
officials have coalesced to form the People's Response for the Protection of
Environment and Natural Resources (PROTECT-Western Mindanao), a regional
alliance opposing large-scale mining. On March 23, the group made
an interfaith pilgrimage to Canatuan. The pilgrimage, according to the group,
is a re-consecration of the Subanen ancestral land in Canatuan, which the TVI
has desecrated. One of Protect’s convenors,
Godofredo Galos of Save Siocon Paradise Movement, noted that TVI’s operation has
affected the Lituban River, a 25,000-hectare watershed area and a water source
to a 750-hectare farmland in Siocon. The river is below the mountains where
TVI’s tailings pond is located. Galos said residents who have waded through the
river have shown signs of skin rashes. The pollution in Lituban
River worries Anoy, who fears this will lead to the loss of rice production in
Siocon, which provides rice supplies for four municipalities in Zamboanga del
Norte. “TVI calls this
development, but for whom? Can you call this development when a tribal
chieftain is being driven out from his land?” asks Anoy. The pilgrimage gathered
religious leaders from the local parishes in Zamboanga del Norte, United Church
of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Northern Zamboanga District, Sisters
Association in Mindanao, Imams and Ustadz from Moro communities, and Subanen
leaders from Zamboanga Sibugay and del Norte. It also gathered 500 people from
the communities in Siocon, from the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga
del Norte, and the cities of Pagadian, Dipolog, Ozamiz and Davao City.
Upon arriving at the TVI
grounds, the leaders gathered around a circle, holding arms and said prayers in
Subanen, Islam, Protestant faiths. Bishop Jose Manguiran of
the Diocese of Dipolog made a symbolic prayer by lying prostrate on the ground
for a minute of silence, and then planted his Bishop’s staff on the ground. This
prayer, Bishop Manguiran said, symbolizes a Prophetic plea for God’s
intervention to help the people in Siocon. The pilgrimage culminated
with a torch parade and cultural program at Siocon’s plaza, the Tanghalan ng
Paraiso (Paradise Theater). The pilgrimage touched
Timuay Anoy, who said during the program that “the struggle (against mining) is
not only the Subanens’ concern, or the Christian people, or the Moro people; it
is the struggle of all people here in the region of Zamboanga.” The tribal chieftain is
happy for now to see his home for a brief moment. He cannot stay on in Canatuan
for concerns of his safety. Nevertheless, Anoy expressed his wish, that like
the other people in Zamboanga, he would “like to see TVI leave our lands, and
compensate for whatever damages they wrought to the people and the land.” The pilgrimage comes at a
time where the religious sector is actively opposing large-scale foreign mining.
Earlier in January, the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) issued its statement calling for the repeal of Republic Act
No. 7942, known as the Mining Act of 1995. A Mindanao Interfaith
conference on mining was held in Dipolog also last January leading to the
formation of Panalipdan (Defend) Mindanao. The conference opposed the Arroyo
government’s promotion of Mindanao as a mining haven. Ten of the government’s
mining priority projects are located in Mindanao, including Siocon, four in
Caraga region, four in Compostela Valley, and one in Socsksargen. What lies behind the rise
of foreign mining in this country, says Bishop Manguiran, is the globalization
pushed by G8 countries such as TVI’s country Canada. “Globalization sweeps away
nationalism, and patrimony, as patrimony is about who controls resources,” he
said. Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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