Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day was the first high-ranking official from Canada to visit the Philippines in six years.
And he did not come empty handed.
Day was in Manila last week to mark the 60th anniversary of Canada’s diplomatic relations with the Philippines when he announced that $18 million of your tax dollars will be going to support local business development in four municipalities in the Philippines.
The enterprises have to focus on information and technology intensive investments that would generate exports to Canada.
“This will have a ripple effect on employment,” Day said in a news conference in Makati.
In the long term, the project is expected to create better jobs and expanded tax bases, leading to increased revenue generation, improved services within local governments, and poverty reduction overall, said Days’s office in a news release.
While Manila said thanks to the much needed financial aid, several groups came together and urged
Day to focus on human rights issues in the Philippines.
In a statement, the groups lamented the role of Canadian investment and aid in alleged human rights violations in the Philippines.
Among the signatories were the Philippine Solidarity Network in Canada, the Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4600, Mining Watch Canada, the Philippine Migrants Society of Canada, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines and the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy, GMA news said.
Wary of such support, the groups said in their statement that “We are deeply concerned that Canada’s aid and trade relations with the Philippines are supporting a regime that perpetrates persistent and widespread human rights violations, instead of giving much-needed help to the most vulnerable and in need of humanitarian aid.”
The groups said Canadian mining firms operating in the Philippines such as TVI Pacifica, Crew Development Corporation, and Olympus have been linked to the repression of protests in local communities that are affected by mining activities.
The companies have always denied those claims.
“Canadian mining companies are involved in at least five major mining projects in the Philippines worth over US$1 billion in investment. In most of these projects, the decision to advance mining projects in the face of community opposition has led to human rights violations,” they said.
According to the groups, protests on the Canadian Crew Development Corporation’s nickel mining project by the indigenous Mangyan in Mindoro led to the killing in 2004 of Naujan Vice Mayor Juvy Magsino, a strong opponent of the project.
 Indigenous opposition to Toronto-based Olympus’ mining efforts in Capcapo in the Cordilleras has also led to the deployment of troops to the region, they added.
On the heels of Day’s visit, Canadian miner TVI Pacific, Inc. announced that higher sales and lower production costs in its Philippine mine drove it into the black, reporting a net income of $9.9 million in the third quarter from a net loss of $2.715 million in the same period last year.
The Southeast Asian country has vast amounts of gold, nickel, copper and other valuable minerals, but for years its mining industry has underperformed due to bad governance, foreign ownership restrictions and domestic opposition.
The government estimates the Philippines has 83 billion tonnes of mineral ore deposits.
The country’s estimated gold ore reserves of four billion tonnes is the world’s third largest, its 7.9 billion tonnes of copper the fourth largest and the 815 million tonnes of nickel ore the fifth biggest in the world, it says.
Outgoing, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been aggressively wooing foreign investment in the mining sector since the country’s Supreme Court ruled that a law allowing foreign control of local mining operations is constitutional.
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.
After making the pledge of $18 milion dollars, Day said his visit is focused on strengthening economic partnerships and highlighting the successes of Canadian companies in the Philippines.
Some 8,000 Canadian firms are present in various parts of the globe, he said.
“Canadian expertise in local business development can play a big role here in the Philippines,” Day said.
Day said 43 percent of mining companies in the world are Canadian. He maintained that these companies act responsibly for the welfare of communities and the environment.
“By working together, the government and the private sector can build sustainable local economies that result in more jobs, an expanded tax base to deliver social services, and poverty reduction,” he said.
It was not only Canadian miners who came under fire by the group as Day visited the Philippines.
The Canadian government was also criticized for providing military aid to the Armed Forces of the Philippines through the Military Training Assistance Program (MTAP) and the Counter-Terrorism Capacity-Building Program (CTCB).
“Instead of giving aid that would benefit those who need it, the Canadian government provides millions of dollars in direct aid to the Philippine military through the MTAP and the CTCB under the guise of capacity development and security reform,” the groups said, in their statement.
The group pointed out that bilateral trade between Canada and the Philippines is worth approximately $1.5 billion Canadian dollars, with the Philippines ranked as the third largest source of immigrants to Canada. There are roughly 400,000 Filipinos living in Canada and 7,500 Canadians living in the Philippines.
The groups called on Day and the Canadian government to review its military aid and stop Canadian mining operations that have been directly linked to human rights violations.
“Any aid or trade initiatives must address Canadian complicity and take measures to genuinely improve the overall human rights situation in the Philippines,” the groups said, accor