Barangay Captain Bonifacio Cabasag, elected local official for Bgy. Miatan, Zamboanga del Norte.With gold prices skyrocketing, mining companies are eager to expand their operations into previously untapped reserves. One such area is Barangay Miatan. Canadian firm Toronto Ventures Incorporated sent engineers and company officials to survey the area and negotiate an agreement with the locals. The people of Miatan, Subanon tribal people, are eager for economic opportunities, but aware of the human rights abuses and environmental destruction TVI has been responsible elsewhere, the community knew this was not the kind of development they wanted.
Company officials then went to Cabasag, offering him a bribe worth five times his annual salary to push the paperwork. Cabasag refused. "It affects more than just me," he said.
2 comments:
Isabel - Great posts and pictures documenting what you're seeing. Keep it up.
This is an amazing story about Cabasag. Not many people can turn down payoffs of that much personal significance.
The guy is a Hero. No doubt about that.
Indeed he is. And for context, he told this story right outside the room he sleeps in at the Barangay Hall -- basically a little wooden hut with a bamboo platform and some plastic shelves. Not a wealthy man, in other words.
I've been traveling to communities that are involved in the GRP-RPMM peace process. So much of what I see and hear is really depressing. But the people themselves inspire me so much.
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