The head of a Calgary mining company whose employees, along with their families, were gunned down in a deadly attack by suspected Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines last week says he believes it was a random attack.
“The conclusion we’re all coming to is that our people were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” says Cliff James, president and CEO of TVI Pacific Inc.
Thirteen Filipinos riding in a company vehicle were killed in the Thursday attack, including two male employees, three male contract security guards and eight women and children family members. Another 12 people were injured in the ambush, which happened about 2:30 p.m. local time in Zamboanga del Norte.
An estimated 40 armed attackers escaped into the jungle.
James says the group were celebrating the Christmas season, and were riding in one of the company trucks that regularly travel the 17-kilometre road from the remote Canatuan mine site to the nearby coastal town of Siocon, 800 kilometres south of Manila on Mindanao island. The truck was loaded with about 30 members of the Canatuan indigenous Subanen community.
“Our people at the site were taking some of the people down to the town for shopping for the festive season,” James told Business Edge. “The attack happened about eight kilometres away from the mine.”
A Philippine military spokesman says Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels were believed to be behind the attack, a claim that has been denied by the rebel group. While initial police reports said the MILF rebels may have been extorting illegal taxation from TVI, which has been operating in the region since 1994, James denies any local bribes were paid.
“From time to time, we’ve had people come to us or send us letters anonymously, basically saying: ‘Give me money, or whatever.’ But there’s been none of that in the last six months,” he says.
TVI has been accused by Catholic, non-government group Caritas-Philippines of harassing local tribesmen opposed to the company’s operations on ancestral burial lands. The company has denied the allegations.
Security has been tightened in the province following the attack, but James says his company will be pressing for additional help at the mine site.
“Without doubt, we’re going to be having some interesting discussions with the government,” he says. “We want to have more security provided by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the military.
“They want us there very badly, we’re creating a lot of jobs . . . and they’re well aware of that. So we expect they will indeed beef up the police detachment and put more army soldiers in the area.
“It doesn’t affect the operations per se . . . but clearly we have to re-examine the whole security situation and I can tell you right now we’ll be beefing that up.”
The Muslim insurgency began three decades ago. Peace talks between the MILF and the government were suspended in October, but are expected to resume next month in Malaysia.
James says TVI Pacific operations VP Tom Healy is heading back to the Philippines to make arrangements for the victims and their families. The publicly traded company (TVI-TSE) started its processing plant at the mine site three weeks ago, and expects to produce its first bar of silver and gold within days.
TVI also has a second mine going into production in the Philippines,where it employs a total of 200 people. The company also has a wholly owned commercial diamond drilling operation which operates in both the Philippines and China.
Web watch:
www.tvipacific.com
