Makiang folks express gratitude and support
Shortly after securing final government approval of its Social Development and Management Plan (SDMP), TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. (TVIRD), through its Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO), recently conducted its first Information-Education-Communication (IEC) campaign and Action Planning Activity under the Plan in Barangay Makiang, one the Company’s impact communities near its gold-copper mine at Sitio Canatuan in Barangay Tabayo. These activities form part of the process that CReDO personnel will observe in the implementation of projects identified by these communities in the series of consultations held during the drafting of the SDMP.
For Barangay Makiang – a multi-ethnic village composed of mostly Muslims and a minority Subanon and Visayan population – TVIRD will provide, among others, a water system, to be constructed with help from volunteer residents and under the supervision of barangay officials.
On hand at the IEC and Action Planning activity were Makiang leaders Myrna Villaluna, barangay chair; Isan Wahab, barangay councilman; and Imam Awalalu Danduh, a former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim secessionist movement which has signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government. They were joined by some 50 Makiang residents who eagerly listened to the details of the TVIRD presentation on the water system for their community.
CReDO Officer Oscar Covarrubias provided Makiang folks an orientation on the SDMP, while CReDO Infrastructure Supervisor Arnold Caban and Abe Dotimas, gave a background on the construction of the water system and a safety orientation, respectively. CReDO SDMP Consultant Lito Donia led the Action Planning Activity, even as CReDO IEC Officer Jose Dagala covered the documentation of the event.
A medical outreach was also conducted by TVIRD Nurse Lois Esnane, and CReDO Liaison Officer Guada Miranda.
Imam Danduh expressed the Makiang residents’ appreciation for TVIRD’s infrastructure project in their community, as well as support for the Company’s operations in Canatuan. “We had been waiting for this Project for so long now; many came here and gave us promises. Now that TVI is actually doing something about it, I will face any one or any group who will question the Project,” he expressed in the vernacular.
“We are glad that our relationship with residents of neighboring communities have grown stronger following our efforts to reach out to them through development projects that we jointly undertake,” Felice Yeban, TVIRD CReDO director, said. “We expect this relationship to further strengthen as we implement in the Company’s impact communities the other projects spelled out in the SDMP.”
Some 70 percent of the materials for the construction of the water system were already delivered to Makiang. The service contract has been signed and construction work is slated to begin in the first week of February.
Barangay Makiang is one of the four barangays in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte in Southern Philippines that are covered by the 8,213.42-hectare Subanon Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). The other three are barangays Tabayo, Candis, and D. Riconalla. The CADT also covers Barangay Kilalaban in Baliguian Municipality.
TVIRD’s other impact communities (defined as such due to the Company’s use of its thoroughfares or to the relative location of these communities to the gold-copper project vis-?