In observance of the “Month of the Ocean” – and in anticipation of Philippine Environment Month – TVIRD-operated Agata Mining Ventures Inc. (AMVI) organized a team of more than 100 volunteers to conduct a day-long clean-up activity along Sitio Payongpayong’s 460-meter coastline.
In observance of “Month of the Ocean” in May and National Environment Month in June 2014, TVIRD recently expanded its Adopt-a-Mangrove program from 2.0 hectares to a total of 6.7 hectares in its host municipality of Siocon. To date, the company has planted a total of 13,440 saplings – which when fully grown – will serve as a natural canopy against storm surges.
TVIRD and partner NGO conduct a livelihood forum to harness the potential of planting bananas – the Philippines’ leading export income earner for farmers. In the country, some 6 million farm households source their livelihood from planting bananas, which is a non-seasonal crop that has 200 indigenous varieties.
TVIRD Resource Geologist Kathleen Digdigan shares a message with fellow ‘DIWATAs’ in the mining industry.
Retired Colonel Valentino Edang, a bemedaled officer of the Philippine Army and current Officer-in-Charge of TVIRD’s Balabag Project, delivers a keynote message during the commencement exercises of Bayog National High School – one of the company’s beneficiary-institutions.
Addressing functional literacy in the countryside faces the same logistical challenges as providing basic necessities as a means to survive. In Zamboanga del Sur, a charitable NGO partners with TVIRD to bring the written word to far-flung Sitio Maglatin in Bayog municipality.
Since 2004, Subanon Chieftain Erdulfo Comisas has been a member of the Multi-Partite Monitoring Team (MMT) assigned to TVIRD’s Canatuan Project. Until today, the chieftain actively supports responsible environmental practices in the town that attributes its development to mining.
Students of Canatuan National High School in Siocon, Zamboanga Del Norte commemorate the People Power I anniversary in the upland mining community of Siocon Town.
Following the wreckage left by an Intertropical Convergence Zone that battered the municipality of Siocon – forcing the evacuation of nearly 3,000 residents and causing landslides that isolated the town – TVIRD and Siocon’s local government mobilized combined resources to repair the damaged Pisawak Spillway that links the town to the rest of the Zamboanga Peninsula.
The successful track record of TVIRD in Canatuan – as well as its genuine community engagement and environmental programs – have been recognized by the town of Siocon, the Subanons of Canatuan who comprise 30% of its workforce, national award-giving bodies and, as of late, the Subanen tribal leaders of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur.
