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A sunny day at school. Grade school students of Canatuan Public School enjoy the warm weather following the rains in the hinterlands of Siocon. At the height of the mining company's operations in Siocon Municipality, TVIRD supported 10 schools with close to 4,000 students - including Canatuan's growing student population. (TVIRD file photo)
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Alton at work. Alton himself is thankful to the company, his university mentors, especially his professors that include one of TVIRD’s senior geologists, for his accomplishments.
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With his outstanding scholastic record in elementary and secondary school, Alton was recently granted employment as a junior geologist in one of TVIRD’s exploration projects in Mindanao.
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Development in Sta. Maria. Located at the heart of the territory of former MNLF combatants, Busicong used to have limited access to education. TVIRD then built a 6-room school building named after Imam Nasaron C. Haron, whose family provided the school site. The company likewise initiated the installation of electric power for the school – which led to the electrification of the whole community.
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Sta. Maria’s inhabitants are mostly fishermen who were once members of the MNLF. TVIRD ushered the development of Sta. Maria Village located six kilometers away from the town center – an inlet zone of the town that faces Sulu Sea.
A valuable addition to TVIRD’s roster and a milestone for a grateful town
Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte / June 2018 – Overjoyed by the news that his youngest son was being hired as a geologist by the company, fisherman Ibno Nabua and his wife Sahdia literally cried. Tears of joy, that is.
The Nabuas are residents of Sta. Maria, a coastal village of this municipality and home to more than 3,000 Muslims of Tausog, Iranon, Maranao and Kolibugan descent. They are parents to Alton Nabua, one of the scholars of TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. (TVIRD) who obtained his degree in Geology last year and went on to pass the licensure examinations for his chosen field that same year.
Alton, who has an outstanding scholastic record in elementary and secondary school, was recently granted employment as a junior geologist in one of TVIRD’s exploration projects in Mindanao. This eventful development created a deep appreciation for the company not only from Alton’s parents and fellow villagers but also from the local government of Siocon that know the Nabuas and the company very well.
Enabling talents
Like his parents, Alton himself is thankful to the company, his university mentors, especially his professors that include one of TVIRD’s senior geologists, for his accomplishments.
A class salutatorian, the young geologist passed stringent requirements to qualify for the Development of Mining Technology (DMTG) Scholarship Program under the company’s Social Development Management Plan (SDMP).
Alton was among a number of hopefuls who competed for the grant that entitled its scholars to free tuition fee, books and uniforms as well as board and lodging allowances with financial assistance during the board review and examinations. SDMP-DMTG scholars are required to take a degree related to mining, a requirement stipulated in Department Administrative Order (DAO) No. 2010-2012 of the Mining Act of 1995.
When Alton enrolled at the Negros Oriental State University in 2013, state university students who are not scholars were paying tuition and other fees.
In time, he earned the degree and passed the board examinations along with Alec Benjamin Ramirez – a NORSU batch mate who topped the board that year.
Forever grateful
Ibno, 51, said he is forever grateful to TVI. “Without the company I could never have a geologist son. We will forever be in (their) debt,” he said, wiping away his tears.
Ibno’s relatives and neighbors could hardly believe the fortune that his son now enjoys. However, Sta. Maria village chair Muarip Salvador is not taken aback by the development.
“I know the company very well. Being one of the witnesses of how TVIRD conducts its mining operations, I am the least bit surprised,” he added. From being one of the doubting Thomases on ‘TVIRD’s advocacy on responsible’ mining, Salvador is now one of the countless advocates of responsible mining in this municipality.
TVIRD built school buildings, constructed water systems and a foot bridge in his village. And many of its residents became its employees.
Lasting development
The company ceased its mining operations in Canatuan in January 2014. However, Salvador still vividly remembers how it was in Sta. Maria during TVIRD’s mining days.
“The jobs and businesses that sprouted and boomed during those days in my village and the livelihood opportunities that we’ve enjoyed – all these were brought by the company and the responsible mining it sincerely implemented,” he said.
“Mining, if done responsibly, propels the economic growth of the host community,” Salvador quipped.
Now, on his last term after winning the recently-concluded Barangay and SK elections, Salvador could only wish the plan of the company to mine its Expanded MPSA area in Malusok will push through in the near future. “I hope our government will realize that a responsible miner like TVIRD should always be afforded the rights provided under our Laws,” he said.
Sta. Maria is the site of the town’s lone port and during TVIRD’s copper-zinc mining operations from 2009 to 2014, ocean vessels docked in the port during every shipment of processes mineral concentrates.
The number of years it spent in Sta. Maria brought the people and the company closer. A warm friendship developed – a rare feat and proof that friendship is not defined by religion and beliefs or in differences of cultures and traditions.
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