Mining firm atones for ‘desecrating’ mountain
SIOCON, Zamboanga del Norte—Canadian mining firm TVI Resources has finally agreed to take penance for violating the rights of the Subanen people and pay fines the tribal way.
TVI’s compensation for its “faults” came nearly 15 years after it started operating here.
“This is our way of penance for desecrating the sacred Mt. Canatuan. It’s an atonement for our sins,” said Joel Alasco, manager of the company’s community relations and development office.
At the start of the seven-day “boklug,” the Subanen’s way of atonement for sins, on Tuesday, TVI officials publicly acknowledged the authority and leadership of Timuay Jose “Boy” Anoy.
A meeting with elders had earlier been called. It was hosted by the council of chieftains of the Seven Rivers.
Spiritual cleansing
During the meeting, TVI was informed of its sins. Its representatives were made to drink rice wine for spiritual cleansing.
The boklug, which featured more rice wine drinking, was then held.
“The boklug that TVI had conducted is called the Gumpia nog Bunwa sog Canatuan. It is TVI’s spiritual cleansing ritual and act of offering reconciliation to the people of Canatuan and our ancestors after the company admitted violating the Subanen customs and traditions, which resulted in damage to our ancestral domain,” said Timuay Noval Lambo, chief elder of the Gukom sog Pito ko Dolungan.
While the boklug aims to cleanse the spiritual aspects of the violations, it could “not absolve the violator of all other responsibilities resulting to personal or physical damage,” Lambo said.
He said the tribal people were hoping that at the end of the buklog on Monday next week, TVI would mend its ways and aspire for a harmonious relationship with them.
Forgiveness
The boklug also encourages the victim to “forgive,” Lambo said.
TVI started operations in Canatuan in 1997 and Anoy’s group has opposed its operation since.
Anoy had accused TVI of operating without community consent, destruction of their ancestral domain and employing tactics to polarize the Subanens.
Worse, he said, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), which is supposed to help protect Subanen customs, traditions and rights, collaborated with TVI by organizing the promining Siocon Council of Elders.
“It was the NCIP, which organized the Siocon Council of Elders despite the fact that I existed as Timuay of Canatuan,” Anoy said.
In July 2007, Anoy filed a complaint against the Philippine government before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and asked the Gukom to intervene.
In December of that year, the Gukom summoned TVI but was ignored by the company.
The Gukom eventually imposed a penalty of 12 “bolos” (the roll of cotton cloth, the monetary value of which is traditionally used as a measure in imposing penalties) per cubic unit of land within the ancestral domain destroyed or impacted by TVI’s mining activity. A bolos is currently pegged at P1,200.
Penalty
The unit of measurement to be used is Anoy’s “dupa” or the length from the tip of the middle finger of his stretched arms.
It was not until August 2009 that TVI formally recognized Anoy’s authority and agreed to the ritual, including the payment of bolos.
The payment will be formalized two years after the Gukom made the decision against TVI.
