Two agencies at odds over Davao Oriental mining project

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The controversy hounding the mining project in Pujada, Mati City, Davao Oriental has put at odds two government agencies. Last week the regional director of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Alberto B. Sipaco, Jr., said his agency will investigate the complaint of a tribal council on the project site about their failure to be recognized by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). Although he welcomed the probe, NCIP Commissioner Felicito L. Masagnay, whose authority covers Southern and Eastern Mindanao, said he will also "find out whether there was basis for an [investigation]." Mr. Masagnay said there has to be "a human right [that should have been] violated" to prompt an investigation, adding there may have been some vested interest behind the council’s complaint. Lauriano A. Barrios of Asiaticus Management Corp. also claimed his company did not know about the CHR’s plan to probe the tribal council’s complaint. "We are on a wait-and-see situation here," Mr. Barrios told BusinessWorld. Mr. Sipaco called for an investigation after several members of the tribe picketed his office while a press conference was being held at the NCIP regional office. A day after the press conference, NCIP Regional Director Roque N. Agton, Jr. told BusinessWorld, "I believe there are some people who have vested interest in the chaos created within the tribal community in the mining area." The controversy has also split the Masagnay brothers, with the commissioner siding with Asiaticus while brother Bonifacio, the provincial tribal chieftain, inducting the officials of the newly created tribal council. Earlier, Asiaticus rescinded a joint-venture agreement with BHP Billiton through an injunction issued by the Makati Regional Trial Court. This prompted BHP Billiton to hale the issue to the Court of Appeals. - BusinessWorld