BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO
QUEZON, Nueva Vizcaya (December 7)—Members of the Agta tribe from the coastal town of Dinapigue in Isabela province visited a London-based mining firm here to benchmark its best practices in implementing its social development and management program (SDMP), particularly on livelihood program best practices.
The Agta tribe members were accompanied by the Dinapigue Mining Corp.’s (DMC) community relations team together with representatives from different peoples organizations (POs) impacted by the DMC’s operation in said town.
DMC, which is a subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corp. that operates in Dinapigue town, is one of the large-scale mining companies in Region 2 (Cagayan Valley) that commenced commercial operations this year.
According to FCF Minerals Corp. operations manager Alan Day, the group toured for two days around Runruno village where FCF operates visiting different organizations that are beneficiaries of the Runruno mine’s SDMP.
These organizations include the Runruno Integrate Sustainable Earn from Waste Program whose businesses are hollow blocks-making, eco-bricks-making, and pillows made of plastics; Abel Runruno Indigenous Peoples Organization or ABEL-RIPO whose main products are made of traditional handloom weaved cloths; Runo Sewing Services; the Kinalabasa Enterprise Development Association Inc. whose into meat processing; and Runruno Livelihood Development Association, which is the federation of the 13 community-based organizations in Runruno village.
Also visited by the group were the Dumaliguia Farmers’ Association Inc. whose main products are vegetables; and the Papaya Livelihood Enhancement and Development Association in Barangay Papaya, Kasibu town where they flaunt their banana chips and handicrafts made of rattan.
With the FCF Minerals community relations office team headed by manager Agnes Rosales and Mine Environmental Protection and Enhancement Office superintendent forester Jomar Bravo, the group from Dinapigue was welcomed in a ceremony with the said Runruno-based organizations sharing the processes and challenges they encountered in the implementation of their livelihood programs.
Quezon Mayor Dolores Binwag, village officials, and focal persons of the FCF Mineral’s host and neighboring communities also shared the impacts of the SDMP projects in their locality.
The visiting members of the Agta tribe, the DMC, and the POs said they were impressed by the FCF’s SDMP best practices and showed their appreciation for the first-hand learning gained from the benchmarking.
They said the implementation of FCF’s SDMP, especially on the livelihood projects, was an inspiration to them and has rekindled their motivation to also implement their SDMP with FCF’s best practices as their guide.