Mindanao journalists held overnight by mining firm’s militia
InterAksyon.com
February 20, 2012

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE – 8:43 p.m.) A dozen journalists from Pagadian City were stopped Sunday and held overnight by militiamen detailed to a foreign mining firm the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Monday.

The journalists managed to leave area of Sitio Balabag in Barangay Depore, Bayog town, Zamboanga del Sur, late Monday afternoon after the Special Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit militia who had held them were “pulled out.”

The group was on its way back after covering the demolition of houses, mostly owned by small-scale miners, at a site targeted for exploration by Canadian firm TVI Resource Development Inc. when their way was blocked by the SCAA, who had even ripped up portions of the road with a backhoe.

Jong Cadion, publisher of Frontline Mindanao Balita, said when asked who had ordered them stopped, the militiamen replied: “’Yung TVI.”

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