PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 21, 2012) – Philippine authorities have denied news reports that a group of journalists were held hostage while attempting to enter a private mining company without permission in Zamboanga del Sur’s Bayog town.
The journalists claimed they were being held against their will in Balabag, a mountainous area, where TVI Resources Development (Phils.) Inc. is currently conducting mine exploration.
The area is also home to hundreds of illegal gold mining operations.
“We categorically deny the report that our soldiers and paramilitary forces have held those people hostage. Their assumption that the soldiers intentionally blocked the road with mud and debris was totally wrong. They were stranded in a landslide which barred any vehicles from entering the villages in the interior,” said Major Harold Cabunoc, a spokesman for the Philippine Army.
Cabunoc said that the journalists who were on board several motorcycles were briefly stopped at an inter-agency checkpoint in Guinoman village. The journalists claimed they were supposed to cover the eviction of a group of small-scale miners, who lost a court case against TVI-RD.
“It is part of our standard operating procedures to stop (and inspect) vehicles to know the people who pass (there), especially that some of our soldiers were held hostage (by communist rebels) in that area on December 3, 2011. The checkpoint is also manned by Department of Environment and Natural Resources personnel who are tasked to thwart illegal logging in the area,” he said.
Cabunoc said the journalists were eventually allowed to proceed to their destination but a huge pile of mud and soil along the road prevented them from passing the area.
He said frustrated about the situation, two of the journalists – Lito Pedrano and Jong Cadion – assumed that the military forces in the area intentionally blocked their path to “hold them hostage.”
Their fear, Cabunoc said, was aggravated upon seeing that there were backhoes in the area and reminded them of the massacre of journalists in Maguindanao in 2009.
He said in a text message that journalists sent out to the media, they “desperately asked for help from their perceived “hostage takers,” the government militias.
“We need help dahil nagiging hostage kami ngayon sa mga SCAA (Special CAFGU) at ng Canadian Mining na TVI-RD sapagkat hindi na kami pinayagan makababa. Kasama namin ngayon ang mga local media at human rights defender dito sa Zamboanga del Sur. Totoo SCAA deploy and may malaking hinukay ang kanilang backhoe like sa Ampatuan, pls help,” the text message was sent by Pedrano said, which was later aired by radio stations even without verifying it from the authorities or TVRID.
In a report sent by Captain Albert Caber, of the 1st Infantry Division Public Affairs Office, he said the backhoes were earlier sent by TVIRD to clear the portion of the road which was impassable due to the mud.
Caber said the clearing operations by TVIRD started even before the arrival of the journalists. He said he was also surprised why the journalists insisted to (travel at night and) use that route when it is too risky for them due to its bad condition and the constant soil erosion.
“They should have used the Balabag-Bayog road instead. It is much safer and there were no landslides along that route. I’m really wondering why they wanted to pass through that road when there is a better option. I hope that the truth will prevail regarding this issue. We will continue performing our mandates to serve our people in this area,” Caber said.
Lieutenant Colonel Nasser Pendatun, commander of the 53rd Infantry Battalion, who is in-charge of the government militias, assisted the stranded journalists who were mostly from Pagadian City. They group later returned to Pagadian City.
The Western Mindanao Command also denied the reports of the journalists and urged the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines to investigate the allegations of the media men.
The NUJP has issued an alert about the false hostage-taking report sent out by the journalists. The report was also carried by some newspapers without verifying it from TVIRD or the police and military, and the local government in the town.
Ronaldo Jabal, TVIRD Public Affairs director, denounced the “fabricated story and imagined” scenarios reported by some Zamboanga del Sur reporters who visited the mining area covered by the Balabag Project Mineral Production Sharing Agreement between TVIRD and the government.
“It is unfortunate that these reporters used the good name of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in their unfounded stories. There is no truth to the reporters’ claim that they were held overnight nor was there any truth to their claim that the company blocked the road leading to the TVIRD project site,” Jabal said.
The police in the area was already quoted as having said that the incidents described by the reporters did not happen. The 53rd Infantry Brigade had also reported the journalists’ claims did not occur. And Malacanang has also issued a statement that this did not happen based on reports from the Philippine Army.
“The truth is that the reporters didn’t reach the project site because of a landslide that had occurred due to illegal scale mining activities. The truth is that they did not witness any demolition of houses as there was none. The truth is that the reporters unfortunately did not get TVIRD’s comment on their allegations because the incidents they were describing were pure fabrication,” Jabal said, adding “the truth is that the press was being used in the black propaganda of a few large
financiers and operators of small-scale mining to discredit TVIRD, which is the legitimate partner of government in minerals development in the area.”
Jabal said using the press by providing them deliberate lies is a desperate attempt by financiers and operators of small-scale mining to continue operating illegally.
TVIRD’s public affairs officers in the province are also easily accessible for interviews since they have been regularly meeting with journalists in Pagadian, Dipolog and Zamboanga and the company is active in many humanitarian and medical missions in Zamboanga provinces. (Mindanao Examiner)
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