Indigenous Peoples

Big Chinese Mining Firms Set Eyes on Mindanao

davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan
China’s ambassador to the Philippines Li Jinjun (left) receives a briefing kit from Medco officer in charge Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana (center) and Secretary Jess Dureza during an investment briefing on Tuesday. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — Three big mining companies in China, including the largest state-owned JinChuan Group Ltd., are now aggressively pursuing talks with Philippine-based companies for possible investments in the country?s mining industry.

Li Jinjun, ambassador to the Philippines of the People?s Republic of China (PROC), said Tuesday that the JinChuan Group is seriously pursuing talks with Philnico Industrial Corporation, which used to operate the shuttered Nonoc plant in Surigao while ZTE Corporation, which is based in Shenzhen, China, is talking with members of the Filipino-Chinese community for the possibility of joint-venture arrangements in mining.

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Young Davao Filmmaker in Full-Length Movie Venture

Filmmaker Sherad Anthony Sanchez (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

The film’s working title is Huling Baylan ng Buhi (The Last Priestess of Buhi). It is about the conflicts faced by an ethnic family in the ?80s in their attempts to keep the tribe’s tradition, which is threatened with extinction by outside influences.

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? A young Davaoe?o filmmaker will join the “2nd Annual Cinema One Originals,” with his first ever full-length venture based on a story of the indigenous Mandaya people in the region.

Sherad Anthony Sanchez, the 21-year-old Davaoe?o who will direct the film, said the project will not only showcase Davaoe?o talent but culture as well.

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Tribal groups say HRVs to escalate with GMA?s 2-year counter-insurgency plan

Indigenous people communities raised alarm over the Arroyo government?s heightened counter-insurgency operations saying these will lead to the escalation of human rights violations from among their ranks. ?Indigenous peoples? communities…

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Coffee Plantation Pushes T?bolis to the Fringe

What was once a farming village of indigenous peoples is now a vast coffee plantation that straddles six towns in three provinces. The plantation prevents the T?boli villagers from expanding their own farmland.

By Keith Bacongco

LAKE SEBU, South Cotabato — Nestled on top of the rugged mountains of Daguma Mountain Range, sitio Datal Bonlangon of barangay Ned in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, is a home to T?boli villagers who have been robbed of their rights to their ancestral land and deprived of livelihood.

What was once a farming village of indigenous peoples is now a vast coffee plantation that straddles six towns in three provinces. The plantation prevents the T?boli villagers from expanding their own farmland.

In 1991, the Department of Environment Natural Resources (DENR) issued an Industrial Tree Plantation License Agreement (ITPLA) to Silvicultural Industries Inc. (SII) but a year later it was converted into Industrial Forest Plantation Management Agreement (IFMA). The agreement, which will expire on December 2016, covers 11,862 hectares.

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