COTABATO CITY — More than 400 ethnic Blaan students in a remote tribal enclave in Tampakan, South Cotabato now have free supply of safe clean water in their campus.
Jane L. Jumawan, in-charge of the Lampitak National High School in Barangay Lampitak in Tampakan, was quoted in radio reports on Tuesday as saying that she and her co-teachers are grateful to the Blaan leaders and the community workers of the Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) for setting up the water supply project now benefitting 484 students.
“The project is a very big help to our students and to us teachers. Now we have an adequate supply of safe water we can drink, use for cooking and gardening,†Ms. Jumawan said.
Blaan tribal chieftain Domingo N. Collado, an indigenous people’s mandatory representative to the Tampakan municipal council, told reporters that the ethnic Blaans in South Cotabato province and the SMI have long been partners in implementing its corporate humanitarian projects despite its not having operated yet the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project since its inception about decades ago.
Mr. Collado said the SMI will start mining for copper and gold in Blaan ancestral lands in Tampakan in 2025 as contracted by the national government, with written free and prior consent from their tribal council and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. — John Felix M. Unson
