Zamboanga Peninsula || IX Mining firm denies hand in holding of media workers
Mining firm denies hand in holding of media workers
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 00:00
A MINING firm has denied it ordered a local militia to prevent a group of Pagadian journalists from leaving its mining site in Sitio Balabag, Barangay Depore in Bayog town, Zamboanga del Sur, on Sunday night. According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Ron Rabal, public affairs director of TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. (TVIRD), denied that the company instructed members of the local Special Cafgu Active Auxiliary (SCAA) to hold the media workers. But Jong Cadion, one of the alleged victims, said that when he asked the militiamen who ordered them held, he was told it was the company.
Cadion said the SCAA personnel who held them were without their nameplates as they refused to identify the unit they were from. Cadion said they, along with members of a human rights organization, went to Balabag to verify reports that houses owned by mostly small-scale miners were to be demolished. The houses were said to be situated near the exploration site of the TVIRD. Bayog Mayor Leonardo Babasa Jr. said the journalists did not inform his office before going to the area. The group safely left Balabag on Monday afternoon, almost 24 hours after spending the night there.
By JIGGER JERUSALEM Correspondent
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