DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 5, 2008) – Tribesmen seized two Canadians and four Filipino surveyors of a Swiss mining firm, but freed them later on a remote village in Mindanao after divesting them of their equipment and money.
The Canadians Deth Triesen, 23, and Andrei Argamomob, 45, were freed late Tuesday afternoon along with their Filipino assistants Madong Turo, Johnny Malid Abundio Tanedo and Loreto Blanco in the town of Kiblawan in Davao del Sur province.
“Police forces are now tracking down the suspects,” Chief Inspector Querubin Simeon Manalang, the regional police spokesman, told the Mindanao Examiner.
The six are workers of the Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), in Tampakan town in Davao del Sur.
Manalang said three B’laan tribesmen seized the surveyors after flagging down their vehicle on a remote Kiblawan village of Tacub. “They were briefly held, about two and a half hours, after the bandits thought the victims were carrying huge amount of money and freed them unharmed,” Manalang said.
He said the natives also confiscated the surveyor' geophysics equipment and computers, but returned them to its owners later Tuesday after a series of negotiations.
Manalang said many armed groups are also operating in the province, including the communist New People's Army (NPA), which had previously attacked the SMI.
B'laan tribesmen are opposing the mining operations in the province, saying, it is destroying their ancestral lands.
Police have already identified two of the three tribesmen who held the surveyors as Yot Salute and Pokok Betil.
In January, communist rebels raided the mining firm in Tampakan town and torched buildings and equipment.
The NPA accused SMI of plunder, land grabbing and environment destruction and said the attack was a punishment. The rebels said the raid was in response to a longstanding demand of indigenous people to put a stop to the firm's operations in the area.
Indigenous tribes were protesting the operation of the SMI, saying, the mining activities allegedly encroached into ancestral lands and caused pollution in rivers and streams in Tampakan, which is considered a watershed area. But it is believed to be one of the world's "best new large-scale copper gold mines," with an estimated 11.6 million tons of copper and 14.6 million ounces of gold.
SMI is partly owned by Xstrata, one of the world's largest mining companies based in Switzerland.
Rebel forces have previously raided other mining firms in Mindanao which refused to pay illegal taxation.
In March, more than 50 rebels also raided the Apex Mining Company in Maco town in nearby province of Compostela Valley. The NPA said it was a punishment for the firm's failure to pay so-called "revolutionary" taxes and for environment destruction.
Gunmen disarmed the firm's security guards and torched mining equipment.
Apex is partly owned by international mining company called Crew Gold Corporation based in London and has interests in Lefa Corridor Gold Project in Guinea; Nalunaq Gold Mine in Greenland; and the Maco Gold Mine in the Philippines.
Last year, NPA forces also attacked a private coal mining firm, the MG Mining Company, in Raja Kabunsuan village in Surigao del Sur's Lingig town.
The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, also warned mining firms to stay away from ancestral lands in Mindanao.
MILF rebels have previously attacked and killed 13 Filipino miners working for the Calgary-based TVI in Zamboanga del Norte province after they ignored warnings to stop operation in Mount Canatuan in Siocon town, a sacred altar to an indigenous tribe called the Subanon whose ancestors settled in the area centuries ago.
The Philippines is estimated to have at least US$1 trillion unexploited treasure trove of minerals and is promoting the rejuvenation of the mining sector to boost the economy and cut its budget deficit and debt.
(Mindanao Examiner)
