TVI Pacific response to “Mining in the Philippines” report

6 February 2007

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited TVI Pacific to respond to the report, “Mining in the Philippines – Concerns and Conflicts”, by Cathal Doyle, Clive Wicks and Frank Nally, Jan 2007, available online at:

TVI Pacific’s Philippines subsidiary, TVI Resource Development Philippines, provided the following response:

Thank you for giving TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) the opportunity to respond to the references to it in the report “Mining in the Philippines: Concerns and Conflicts” that you will feature on your website.
It is unfortunate that the Company was not given the same opportunity when the authors drafted the report. As a result – and despite admitting that the authors “were unable to visit the actual mine” – they provided a repetition of unfounded criticisms of the Company based on misinformation put forward over the years by a variety of mining opponents; criticisms that the Company has refuted repeatedly.
Lack of Due Diligence and Duty of Care:
The Company was contacted by the authors only after they had returned to Europe, and after they had already posted an internet Blog indicating a highly biased and selective approach to the subject. TVIRD responded, inviting the authors to visit the Company’s Canatuan Project and speak directly with the Company and the indigenous community involved. To date we have received no reply to our communication.
Not surprisingly, therefore, we find the report itself to be equally selective and improperly one-sided. In our view, in regard to TVIRD and without being able to speak for other companies, it was prepared without any of the generally accepted processes of Due Diligence or Duty of Care – with regard to verifying sources, being transparent on the vested interest of the sources of information, contacting the Company or, in regard to once instance, contacting the community whom one of the interviewees claimed (incorrectly) to represent.
TVI Programs
To begin, your readers may wish to review the positive initiatives and programs being implemented by the Company toward sustainable development for the indigenous community and the furtherance of human rights – all within a project that promises the potential, for the first time, of long-term economic development for what has been a politically troubled region of poverty and conflict. For the people in the area, and for the Government of the Philippines, the project represents a certain amount of hope, for economic activity that will enable people to forget the reasons for their fights of the past. TVI is also using the lessons from the Canatuan experience, as well as the adoption of the best practices possible for the region, to advantage in the pursuit of other, new projects, in this highly prospective area for minerals development.
A Pdf presentation is available at to describe these initiatives.
A brief history:
In the 1990s the Canatuan Project received all the required approvals of the Philippine Government as well as early endorsement of “Social Acceptability” under the law, resulting in an Environmental Compliance Certificate. However, illegal small-scale mining interests who had camped on the project area and were involved in theft of minerals as well as environmentally and socially destructive mining processes, financed a campaign of unlawful confrontation against the project by both civil and political actors, some of whom were indigenous people. During the evaluation of the resource and the study of project feasibility, and after TVI had been granted the legal permits to proceed, the Philippines Government accorded a Certificate of Ancestral Domain to the approximate 1,100 indigenous people living in the area. After protracted (and understandable) debate, the majority of the representatives of the indigenous community voted to support the Project, and the Company – though not legally required to do so – entered into a Memorandum of Agreement, providing them with a 1% Royalty and a variety of other benefits leading toward sought-after sustainable development of the community.
Any situation in the ZamboangaPeninsula, Mindanao, is complicated by the fact that Muslim separatist and Communist guerillas are present in many areas and Peace and Order in the ZamboangaPeninsula are maintained at the cost of of military presence throughout the Peninsula. Further, in 2002, two ambushes against company vehicles were carried out by an alleged lost command of a rebel separatist group, resulting in the loss of 15 lives of indigenous people. As a result, although the Project does not play any role in the conflict between the rebels and the Government (now in extended Peace negotiations), the Government allocated two companies of non-regular military auxiliaries (called SCAA) to protect both the Community and the Company. This deployment has been a source of provocation by illegal mining interests and by mining opponents – and it has been a source of controversy ever since. TVI is managing the attendant issues by progressive implementation of the principles of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights; and by working towards new mechanisms of guaranteeing security
Responses to Specific Issues:
May we refer you to the attached document, “Fact vs. Fiction” [PDF], which spells out our responses to issues raised during the inquiries conducted by the House Committee on National Cultural Communities on September 23, 2005 and December 14, 2005.?
Your readers may also wish to refer to the TVIRD website recent accomplishments are covered (Au Courant: Latest News, Archives) and historical documents responding to various issues are uploaded (Au Courant: Issues). We are confident that these references, as well as all the other materials that can be found in the website, are a wellspring of information and facts.
As part of your balanced coverage of the issues, you may also wish to accept our invitation, like many other multi-sector representatives, to visit the mine and see for yourselves. Our Doors are Open.

Rocky Dimaculangan
Director, Public Affairs
TVI Resource Development Philippines