Subanen face eviction

Subanen face eviction
24 February 2005

Several Subanen familes fear eviction from their ancestral land by the
Canadian mining company, TVI. Three families have already received
letters from the company threatening court action and saying, 'We
demand that you leave the company premises.' Nearly 100 families
overall are threatened, including Visayans who have come into the area
in more recent years.



Many Subanen have been campaigning for years to have TVI removed from
their land. The company operates an open-pit gold mine there though
under Philippine law it is illegal for anyone to enter the Subanen's
land without their permission. The latest threats follow a series of
violent attacks on the Subanen, including the wounding of four people
in 2004.



The Subanen Timu-ays (leaders) have said, 'Our land is sacred. It is
the source of our daily needs, and most of all our ancestors have been
buried here. Land is the source of life for all creatures and things.'



The Subanen, or people of the river, are the most numerous of the
Philippine tribal peoples, numbering 300,000. They are scattered across
the mountains of the Zamboanga peninsula, which they believe was given
to them by God. They live in small agricultural communities and
practice shifting cultivation. Over the last century much of their land
has been settled by outsiders; more recently, there has been a further
invasion of logging and mining companies. The Subanen's protests have
been brutally suppressed by the Philippine army, and many Subanen have
been forced to leave their homes. Survival-International