KORONADAL CITY — Up to 15,750 ethnic Blaans and non-indigenous settlers in Tampakan town, South Cotabato benefitted from the joint El Niño relief missions in the past three weeks of tribal leaders, local executives and a private mining company.
Thousands of Blaan farmers in the mineral-rich Tampakan town lost their upland rice, corn and other short-term crops due to the prolonged drought because of the El Niño weather pattern.
Tribal leader Nora D. Sukal told local radio on Tuesday that rice, food packs and other relief supplies have been distributed to Blaans in secluded areas of Tampakan since May by local executives and the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated.
Domingo N. Collado, an appointed Indigenous People’s (IP) Mandatory Representative to the municipal council of Tampakan, separately told reporters on Tuesday that officials of their local government helped facilitate the SMI’s outreach activities, also supported by the administration of South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr.
“Blaan farmers and their non-Blaan neighbors had no income in the past four months from farming due to the drought,” Mr. Collado said.
About five more tons of relief supplies were also distributed to drought-stricken communities in other towns of South Cotabato last week, he said.
Two local officials, Vice Mayor Bai Naila M. Malinta of Columbio, Sultan Kudarat and Mayor Maria Theresa D. Constantino of Malungon, Sarangani, confirmed on Tuesday that the SMI, contracted by Malacañang to operate starting next year the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in Blaan ancestral lands in Tampakan, already spent in the past six years more than P2 billion for its corporate social responsibility projects in tribal enclaves in their municipalities, in Tampakan and Kiblawan, Davao del Sur. — John Felix M. Unson
