PMEA Blog

TVI Pacific says that, while it applauds the mission and objectives set out in the recently published Rights & Democracy Report, entitled Human Rights Impact Assessments for Foreign Investment Projects, the company is very critical of the flawed execution of the Philippines Case Study contained in the Report.

TVI Pacific voluntarily participated in the Philippines Case Study as, it says, it “is proud of its achievements in advancing human rights in the communities in which it is active in the Philippines. The company believes that further progress in relation to human rights and the development of indigenous peoples is attainable with the benefit of an open dialogue involving interested parties and constructive input from objective third parties. TVI Pacific is supportive of the Rights & Democracy goal to develop and test a methodology for human rights impact assessments for foreign investment projects and proposes to adopt a modified Human Rights Impact Assessment Methodology to augment the existing Social Impact Assessment approach for project scoping and development.

“However, the Philippines Case Study included in the Report is, in the company’s view, seriously flawed and factually incorrect in a number of important respects. The study was prepared not directly by Rights & Democracy, but rather by a ‘research team’, which consisted of well-known opponents of the mining industry in general and TVI Pacific’s Canatuan project in particular. Predictably, the study evidences a biased view of TVI Pacific’s operations in the Philippines and completely ignores the positive effects of its numerous initiatives to improve the well-being and standard of living of the indigenous population in the area surrounding its Canatuan mine and its efforts to minimize the environmental impact of mining operations at Canatuan.”

“We expect it is more than simple coincidence that the conclusions and recommendations set out in the Philippines Case Study coincide with positions advocated by members of the “research team” over the past decade”, noted Cliff James, President and CEO of TVI Pacific. “Those organizations have consistently taken positions adverse to TVI Pacific over an extended period of time and the Philippines Case Study included in the report provided them with another forum to propagate their agenda.”

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