13/07/2025
Multi-sector group to monitor mineral extraction in Blaan lands
Local executives, different business groups, and leaders of the Blaan tribe have assured to support the newly formed bloc that shall monitor the implementation of community development projects related to the programmed extraction soon of mineral deposits in four Central Mindanao towns.
The lawyer Adolf Ryan Lantion, director for Region 12 of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, told reporters on Friday, July 11, 2025, that the multi-sector 1st Joint Monitoring Team, which they launched last week, shall closely observe the enforcement of policies stated in the written Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from the Blaans for the copper and gold mining project of the state and a private firm in Tampakan, South Cotabato, slated to start soon.
The FPIC from the Blaans binds the NCIP, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI), the indigenous communities and other stakeholders to the multi-billion Tampakan Copper-Gold Project to ensure that the local communities shall benefit from it.
The NCIP-12 and the SMI have representatives in the 1st JMT, according to Lantion, whose office is in Koronadal City, the capital of South Cotabato province and regional seat of Region 12.
The Tampakan Copper Gold Project of the national government and the SMI shall cover Blaan tribal domains in Tampakan and in nearby hinterlands in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, in Malungon, Sarangani and in Kiblawan, Davao del Sur.
Two local executives, Maria Theresa Constantino and Joel Calma, newly-elected vice mayors in Malungon and Kiblawan, respectively, separately told reporters on Friday that they will support the operation of the 1st JMT.
The mayor of Columbio, Amirh Musali, said he and his constituents shall also help push the missions of the 1st JMT forward.
"There is no problem with us supporting this monitoring team. We shall help this team achieve its goals," Domingo Collado, an appointed representative of the Blaan tribe to the Tampakan municipal council, said.
Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza, chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12, said she was elated with the activation of the 1st JMT.
Mendoza said she will compel the members of the multi-sector, inter-agency RDC 12, which had endorsed, via a resolution, the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project, to support the 1st JMT extensively.
"We are not in Region 12 but we shall also support the 1st JMT because the economic growth that the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project will bring in to Tampakan, to Koronadal City and to South Cotabato province, in general, will surely spread towards the two Bangsamoro provinces in Central Mindanao, Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte," said the entrepreneur-lawyer Ronald Hallid Dimacisil Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, which is based in Cotabato City.
Lantion said the pioneer members of the newly-organized 1st JMT were sworn in during a symbolic rite on Wednesday last week at the NCIP’s regional office in Koronadal City.
“This team will be instrumental in making sure that our indigenous people shall get what they rightfully deserve and that our engagements with SMI shall be premised on principles of utmost respect, accountability, and mutual development.” Lantion said.
The Blaan-dominated Tampakan town is less than 20 kilometers away from Koronadal City. Geologists from abroad and mining engineers in the central office of the DENR had placed at no less than US$ 200 billion their estimate of the value of copper and gold deposits in the municipality and in nearby Blaan enclaves in Columbio, Malungon and Kiblawan towns that are soon to be extracted via the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project. (July 11, 2025)