Mining giant Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. is paying hundreds of millions of royalties to the Mamanwa and Manobo tribes.
Said tribes claimed to have lived in the area where the mining firm extracts nickel in Claver, Surigao del Norte but cannot show proof of such fact.
Dante Bravo, the mining firm’s president, said the royalties they paid to the Mamanwas and Manobos now reach over P400 million, one of the biggest payments ever made to any tribe living in an area where a mining company operates.
The official said the amount paid is a clear proof they heeded the law on mining. Any mining firm must pay or relocate any tribes to be displaced by its operations.
“They were not displaced as the area is not habitable because it is not suitable for agriculture,” Bravo explained to the Daily Tribune in an exclusive interview.
A source told the Tribune that sometimes, tribes are not easy to deal with.
“Sometimes it is difficult to deal with them,” the source said.
Aside from the tribes, local government units (LGUs) also give problems to investors as they have demands that are difficult to meet.
“LGUs have several demands sometimes which we just have to deal year-on-year,” the source added.
Bravo said they paid said tribes even on the basis of a verbal claim that they once lived in the area.
“These people just tried to claim that they once lived there and that’s about it,” the president said.
He said the amount they pay to the tribes is equivalent to one percent of the revenues royalties which to date now amounts to P400 million.
At present, Global Ferronickel is operating in an extensive 4,300-hectare of forest in Claver where it extracts nickel for export to various countries.
Bravo said it is common for those engaged in nickel mining to operate in large swaths of lands as it is required to extract the minerals.
He said the area where they operate pales in comparison with other bigger mining firms such as Nickel Asia, the mining firm owned by the Zamoras of San Juan City.
“Nickel Asia has four big nickel mines,” Bravo said.