Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Invest in Peace gets mining firm's support
NORTH Cotabato's Invest in Peace program has earned the support of a mining company that operates not in North Cotabato but in distant Agusan del Sur.
Phil Saga Mining Corporation president Samuel Afdal said they decided to support the Invest in Peace program upon the invitation of Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol and as part of their company's social responsibility.
He said they will be adopting a barangay in North Cotabato and help the village in their livelihood, education and infrastructure needs.
Afdal said they have been supporting several communities in Rosario and Bunawan towns in Agusan del Sur since they started operation eight years ago.
"Now it's time that we help even outside our area of operations and we choose North Cotabato because it needs the most assistance," Afdal said.
It was learned that Phil Saga had already donated more than P40 million in the Agusan del Sur communities as part of their corporate social responsibility. Afdal said they plan to duplicate all their CSR programs in Agusan to the barangay that they will be adopting.
Though the North Cotabato government has still not identified which barangay Phil saga would be adopting, Afdal said they have already mapped out a plan for their programs and are raring to visit the barangay once identified.
It was learned that Afdal's grandfather was a Moro foreigner preacher. His father married a Christian Filipina, thus he considers himself more of a Christian than a Muslim.
Afdal said he also grew up in the towns of Jolo in Sulu and Carmen in North Cotabato, thus the province of Cotabato being close to his heart.
Among the projects already planned by Phil Saga for North Cotabato are the construction of school buildings, water system and several livelihood programs. But the best program they would like to share to North Cotabato is their Palay Production Financing Program (PPFP), which is now being implemented in Agusan del Sur in light of the rice crisis affecting the country.
Victor Salvado, president of the Mindanao Phil Saga Foundation, said the aim of their PPFP is for the farmers "to escape the bondage of dependence from financiers" for their palay production.
With PPFP, Salvado said, palay farmers are granted a loan of P21,000 to finance the purchase of seedlings and other inputs needed by the farmers.
Salvado said the money must, however, be spent solely for the maintenance of just one hectare of palay field.
"Also the money will be given as they need it. Meaning hindi isahang bigay lang at pabayaan na lang namin ang farmers kung paano nila gastuhin yung pera. We will still control it for them. That way sigurado kami na napupunta talaga yung pera kung saan dapat mapunta," Salvado said.
As to the rationale of the money being spent on just one hectare of the beneficiary's farmland, Salvado said this is to ensure that the one hectare will have high yield.
"Kasi kung yung pera gagastuhin mo sa limang ektarya na dapat sana ay pang isang ektarya lang ay hindi rin tataas yung production dahil nga hindi namaximize yung yield dapat ng isang ektarya," said Salvado.
So far, Phil Saga had already supported 40 hectares of palay in Agusan del Sur. The loan is without interest. The only condition imposed by the mining company is that beneficiary return the P21,000 to them upon their harvest.
This way, Salvado said, the money would in turn be loaned to other palay farmers who wanted to avail of the program. This is Phil Saga's way of also teaching the farmers the proper values aside from supporting them with their financial needs.
Afdal said they will be allocating P10 million for their PPFP which they hope to also implement in North Cotabato through the Invest in Peace program.
Piñol meantime said the Invest in Peace program aims to help poor barangays in Mindanao by urging the top corporations to adopt at least 200 of them every year.
He added that these corporations in their private capacity and through a project monitoring office will look into the basic needs of these barangay like capability training for their leaders, training in agriculture for the farmers, repair of school buildings, construction of water systems, internet connections, and scholarship for the children and small infrastructure projects which will be tax exempt.
"This is a challenge to the private sector because all of us will be affected anyway by the conflict in Mindanao. Business will be affected and so will commerce," Piñol said.
Piñol also said that this is the time when the private sector needs to come in to help poor people by giving them hope and courage to develop themselves into responsible and dedicated individuals in their respective community. (BOT)
