`Impressed’ with company’s environment and social programs
“This is serious business!” With these words, Marcelino Gargar
sums up his impression on the reforestation program of TVI Resource Development
Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD), whose Canatuan mining operations he recently visited
to inspect the implementation of the company’s five-year Social
Development and Management Program (SDMP) and to monitor TVIRD’s environmental
protection initiatives in the area.
Gargar, Operations officer of the Zamboanga del Norte Environmental Management
Office (ZaNEMO), could not hide his delight as he toured the 800 square-meter
nursery where TVIRD sources seedlings for its tree-planting efforts in the Subanon
ancestral domain, where it will soon begin its Sulphide Project in this mountain
village of Siocon town. “I am quite impressed with all these seedlings
which are in fact ready for replanting. The variety is also impressive; not
just ordinary species but excellent ones,” Gargar gushed as he went around
inspecting the plants, neatly stacked and labeled in the nursery premises. “I
expected to see just an ordinary shack with a few seedlings here and there.
But I was wrong.”
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Marcelino
Gargar (in red) at the TVIRD nursery: “I expected to see just an ordinary shack with a few seedlings here and there. But I was wrong.” |
TVIRD has planted over 100,000 trees – more trees than were present before
it began operations here in mid-2004 – in Canatuan, the ancestral domain
of the Subanon indigenous people (IP). The nursery, maintained by the company’s
Environment Department, is being managed by a pureblooded Subanon, Gemma Dandana
Tolentino. Tolentino is a licensed forester and daughter of Council of Elders’
(COE) member Zenaida Dandana, truly underscoring how “serious” both
the company and its IP hosts view environmental protection in the Subanon homeland.
Gargar, a BS Forestry graduate himself (with a Bachelor of Law degree to boot),
was further amazed when, after a five-minute trek, he and his team from ZaNEMO
reached the summit of the overburden dump – non-acidic earth with no mining
value – adjacent the mine pit where TVIRD had mined gold and silver and
will soon extract copper and zinc. Though it was quite cloudy, with a cool breeze
sweeping past, the reforestation/re-vegetation project at the mined-out area
now offers a scenic view. The benched slopes are lined with trees, some already
a meter high, and covered with indigenous abaca matting to further hold and
stabilize the earth.
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Top photo shows Gargar looking
at the benched slopes in the overburden dump that are lined with trees and covered with indigenous abaca matting to further hold and stabilize the earth. In middle photo, nurse Max Madriaga (in blue shirt) explains how patients are treated at the company clinic, as midwife Malou Prestoza looks on. Gargar, accompanied by CReDO Manager Thess Limpin, inspects a water system donated by TVIRD to residents of Sitio Solonsangan, an impact community. |
“This is such a well-planned and well-engineered reforestation program.
I can see that TVIRD is really serious in implementing its rehabilitation program,”
Gargar opined.
TVIRD Environment Department Manager Fidel Bontao has this to say: “We
are religiously implementing our reforestation and environmental protection
projects as mandated by our Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program
(EPEP). We have an annual target of 50-60 thousand trees to plant and we are
conscientiously achieving that target. These trees, with the abaca matting on
the ground, help to prevent soil erosion on steep slopes at the mined out areas
and to rehabilitate the environment.”
The ZaNEMO monitoring team then proceeded to the Subanon communities around
the mill and mine areas to look into TVIRD’s SDMP projects. They were
met by the COE and officials of the Siocon Subanon Association, Inc., the legal
representative of the Canatuan Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title holders.
Gargar and his men saw the SDMP projects such as potable water system, toilets,
paved roads, livelihood projects, school buildings and facilities, and the community
clinic.
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Above,
Gargar looks at a TVIRD-initiated road repair work at Solonsangan. Below, Gargar and Limpin are flanked by (from left) ZaNEMO’s Bobby Mahinay, TVIRD Canatuan Mobile Department Superintendent Fred Gonzaga, as well as Joerem Alumbro and Eduardo Romarate, also of ZaNEMO, at the view deck near the mill plant. |
“I am glad to see that all the initiatives that are being
done by the company. I am really impressed. And thank you for the warm accommodation.
I am looking forward to another validation and monitoring activity,” Gargar
said after the tour.
TVIRD’s second five-year SDMP for its Sulphide (Copper-Zinc) Project,
set to commence within the last quarter of 2008, has already been approved by
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geosciences
Bureau (DENR-MGB). (Rene Patangan)
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Gargar,
left, during his exit conference with TVIRD Vice President for Philippine Operations Yulo Perez and Limpin (back to camera). “I can see that TVIRD is really serious in implementing its rehabilitation program,” Gargar says. |
