MANILA, March 27 (Reuters) - Burglars ransacked the offices of a Canadian-run gold mine on the troubled southern Philippine island of Mindanao earlier this week and stole the payroll for local staff, police said on Thursday. Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, police spokesman in the Western Mindanao region, said about 1.1 million pesos ($26,378) in cash was taken from the offices of the TVI Resource Development Inc. on Tuesday. The company is an affiliate of Calgary-based TVI Pacific Inc <TVI.TO>. "We got the report only today when the mining firm's finance officer reported for work after a long Easter holiday," Gucela told reporters, adding the office's vault was destroyed. Gucela said investigators have started interviewing several security guards on duty, suspecting the robbery could be an inside job. Muslim separatists and local mountain tribesmen are opposed to the mine operations near Siocon town on Mindanao's Zamboanga peninsula. But it is not an area where communist rebels are known to operate. Since the start of the year, three mining firms have been attacked by communist guerrillas in other parts of Mindanao after mine operators declined to contribute to rebel taxation. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)
A farmer harvests rice stalks in Carigara, in the province of Leyte, central Philippines March 22, 2008. For Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, already battling a corruption scandal, the price of ...
