Closed mining firm still ‘sows fear’

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The continued presence of armed security men hired by a mining firm that was ordered shut down for illegal operations, has been sowing fear among members of a tribal community in Zamboanga del Sur, the province’s governor said yesterday.

Gov. Antonio Cerilles told Inquirer by phone that the Subanens, who have been opposing the operations of mining firm Lupa Pigegetawan, were wary that armed men working for the AY76 security agency would harm them.

“(The security agency) would say its guards were protecting the Subanens but on the contrary, they are harassing the lumad,” said the governor.

Mayor Leonardo Babasa Jr., of Bayog town where Lupa was maintaining an illegal mining site, said the harassment was not deliberate but because the guards were fully armed, Subanens felt threatened.

“They are afraid to see the guards even if they were only fetching water,” he said.

Babasa said what might have intimidated the Subanens was the way the guards acted in the past.

He said the guards acted like they were the law in the Subanen communities.

“They established several checkpoints that were not fully coordinated with the local government and state security forces like the police and military. In fact, I was once held up at one of their checkpoints,” Babasa said.

He said the provincial government had since dismantled the checkpoints.

Retired general Alexander Yapching, who runs AY76, said he could not understand why his men were being accused of harassing the Subanens when they were just protecting their interests against big mining companies.

Lupa has been claiming it is owned by the Subanens but its papers showed otherwise.

Yapching said he would have wanted the allegations answered in court so he could face the accusers.

Cerilles said Lupa’s activity has stopped since May 27.

Babasa said Lupa has since removed its heavy equipment from the Subanen villages.

“All the heavy equipment and facilities were already removed since last week, and only security forces remained in that mining area,” he said.

Lupa has repeatedly defied a cease and desist order issued by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Western Mindanao, but the provincial government finally closed the lid on its operations recently.

Lupa has been passing itself off as a company formed by Subanen natives to explore their ancestral domain areas for minerals.

But based on documents the Inquirer obtained, one of its owners is a Manuel Go of Cebu Mining and Management Corp. Cebu Mining has a partnership with China Metallurgical Group for Mineral Resources and Development.

Its president is Absalon Alcorin, a Mandaya lumad from Davao.

Lupa has contracted AY76 to deploy more than 30 armed guards to its illegal mining site in Zamboanga del Sur.

AY76 officials have claimed that the guards were “100-percent Subanens.”