Canatuan Project - TVI Pacific

Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Regarding: Discrimination against the Subanon of Mt Canatuan, Siocon, Zambonga del Norte, Philippines in the context of large-scale gold mining on their ancestral domain.

Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, 71st Session, 30th July-18th August 2007.

The community at TVI Pacific’s mine site in the municipality of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte is made up of indigenous Subanon, some of whom are native to that place and included in the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title, and others that have been come from others areas to work for TVI Pacific, and “settlers,” mainly from the Visayan region of the Philippines, some of whom were small scale miners all of whom are now agricultural.

In a landmark report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) calls on the Canadian government to ensure "socially and environmentally responsible conduct by Canadian companies."

Canadian mining company TVI Pacific Inc. (TVI), listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:TVI), faces social opposition to its proposed mining activities in the Philippines from a united front of citizens from diverse cultural backgrounds in the town of Siocon, in south-western Mindanao, the Philippines. The Indigenous Subanon, who live in the mountains where TVI wants to locate its mine, have come out against the project. Down-stream communities in the fertile valley below the mine are opposed to the mine as they have already observed negative effects from the mine's operations on the Siocon and Lituban Rivers that they rely on for irrigation and fish farming. Muslims from Siocon, living on the coast, rely on fishing for their livelihood and they too blame the mine for deteriorating fishing conditions in the river's estuaries. All three affected communities have unified in the Save Siocon Paradise Movement. In elections held in May of 2004, mayoral candidate César Soriano campaigned on the platform that if elected he would oppose the TVI mine. He won a landslide victory, winning twice as many votes as his nearest competitor.