By Mata Press Service

The Communist Party of the Philippines has ordered its armed wing — the New People’s Army — to attack foreign mining firms in the Philippines.

Security analysts in Manila said the potential targets include several controversial Canadian operations in the Philippines.

They include:

- Calgary-based TVI Pacific in Mount Canatuan, about 700 kilometers southeast of Manila. The company has been extracting gold and silver from the area. (See: “Leave our sacred mountain alone” in The Asian Pacific Post)

- Crew Gold which has the Masara or Maco Gold Mine in south-eastern Mindanao Island and employs about 1,955 people in the Philippines.

- Atlai Resources Inc on Sibuyan Island on the tidewaters of the Visayan Sea.

Many of the areas where foreign firms operate mines or exploratory digs are already listed in a travel advisory warning Canadians not to visit these places “unless they have critical or compelling business or family reasons.”

The Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing enjoy financial and moral support from a large segment of Filipinos in Canada. Ottawa has listed the party and its army as terrorist groups.

Recently, many Filipino-Canadians rallied in the streets of Vancouver and Toronto after their leader, Jose Maria Sison, was arrested in the Netherlands where he lives in exile.

The call to arms against foreign miners has already led to acts of violence.

This month, communist rebels attacked an Australian mining firm in the eastern Philippines, torching vehicles and equipment and seizing guns and various items.

About 40 communist rebels swooped down on an El Dore Mining Corp. site in Labo town in Camarines Norte province, 210 kms south-east of Manila.

The rebels burned four vehicles, drilling equipment and a generator set. They also carted away an undetermined number of guns, computer sets and cellular phones before fleeing to the mountains.

Anti-mining sentiment escalated in the Philippines after an activist was killed during a protest rally outside another Australian nickel mining site in the central Philippine province of Romblon.

Arman Marin, 42, was leading a small group of protesters outside Australian firm Pelican Resources’ site when a company guard shot him at close range. 

The killing of Marin has galvanized green groups and local politicians to demand an end to all mining on the island of Sibuyan in Romblon Province. Marin was a local politician there.

The small island, home to one of the densest forests in the world, has been dubbed the “Galapagos of Asia.”

“We urge Australian companies Pelican Resources and BHP Billiton, Canadian Altai Resources, and all mining operators in Sibuyan to immediately stop all mining activities there,’’ local activist Anabelle Plantilla said.

“One person killed because of the divisions and conflicts that the greed of mining companies brings into communities is enough reason to seriously reflect and ponder on the kind of future that the extractive industries bear for the Philippines.”

Many of the mining companies have small private armies to protect their operations and employees.

Another mining flashpoint in the Philippines is the Australian-owned, $174-million Didipio gold project north of Manila.

Oxfam claims the operators used strong arm tactics to pressure local communities to accept the mine, now under development.

Claiming five years of “investigative work” went into the report, Oxfam says the company, Oceana, “refuses to accept that many of the people of Didipio do not want a mine in their front yard.”

Oceana rejected the claims as “factually incorrect, inaccurate and misleading.”

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been aggressively wooing foreign investments in the mining sector since the country’s Supreme Court ruled that a law allowing foreign control of local mining operations is constitutional.

The cash-strapped government has said that the top 23 mining and 37 exploration projects around the country, which involve several Canadian companies, could generate $6 billion in new investments over the next five years and create 1 million jobs.

It said the country’s mineral reserves are estimated to be worth about $800 billion, and the industry could raise about $2.2 billion annually, enough to wipe out the country’s fiscal deficit.

Opponents of the mining law, including the country’s powerful Roman Catholic Church, say that large-scale mining destroys the environment, endangers the health of the people and displaces indigenous communities.

They say raw mineral exports from the Philippines contribute only a small fraction to the national income, while mining companies extract large profits.

In Vancouver, last month, Heherson Alvarez, chair of the Philippine Mining Development Corp. said his government maintains an investor-friendly climate for mining as well as a sustainable mining policy that encourages local investment and employment opportunities.

Alvarez noted that the Philippines was recognized in 2005 by Mining Journal as the world’s most improved jurisdiction for sustainable mining.