21 Blaan families get pigs, feeds

KORONADAL CITY — Blaan chieftains were elated with the inclusion of 21 more families in nearby Tampakan, South Cotabato as beneficiaries of a joint pig-raising project of their tribal council, local officials and a private company.

Radio reports here on Monday quoted the Blaan leader Domingo N. Collado, an appointed indigenous people’s mandatory representative to the Tampakan Sangguniang Bayan, as saying that the families were given piglets vaccinated against African Swine Fever and feeds under the joint livelihood program of tribal leaders, municipal officials and the Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI).

The project is part of efforts of tribal leaders, municipal officials and the SMI to generate livelihood for marginalized families in ancestral lands in Tampakan and in three other towns nearby, Columbio in Sultan Kudarat, Malungon in Sarangani, and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.

The SMI was contracted by the national government to operate the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project starting 2025. It will cover Blaan domains in Tampakan and in Columbio, Malungon, and Kiblawan. Experts in the central office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and mining engineers from Europe had placed at no less than US$ 200 billion their least estimate of the value of copper and gold deposits in Tampakan, awaiting exploration.

The project, supported by the multi-sector, interagency Regional Development Council 12, has written permission from Blaan tribal councils in South Cotabato and from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. — John Felix M. Unson