Paul A. Flores is one of the fishermen who lives in the small town of Cantilan Island’s Barangay Gen. Luna.
In fact, Paul is the president of the local fishermen’s association and they recently received a new motorized banca to replace their aging fishing boat courtesy of Marcventures Mining and Development Corporation (MMDC).
Faster and sleeker, Paul confesses that the motor boat has proven useful not only for better fishing but also for delivering the day’s catch to the mainland sans the use of paddles.
“Our income surged after MMDC provided us with an additional pump boat,” Flores said in the local dialect. “Most of our members have no pump boats of their own, so the new motor banca was really a blessing for us.”
See, Carrascal, Madrid, and Cantilan in Surigao Del Sur are mining towns that are part of MMDC 4,700-hectare nickel property. But Barangay General Luna is not part of that territory, being on the periphery. Still, these 33 barangays that are considered “non-mining communities” are allocated P100,000 per year from the company’s Social Development and Management Program (SDMP).
For 2018, MMDC has allocated P3.3 million for non-mining communities. And Paul and the fisherfolk of coastal towns like Barangay Gen Luna have already benefitted from these livelihood assistance initiatives.
“Our income surged after MMDC provided us with an additional pump boat. Most of our members have no pump boats of their own, so the new motor banca was really a blessing for us.”
Paul explained that their association consists of 2 kinds of fishermen: the “fishnet fishers” or those who actually catch the fish, and then the sellers or manglab-asay who process and categorize the fish and then bring the fish to sell at the market and with the fish merchants.
The new pump boat from MMDC meant that the manglab-asay were now empowered to more easily bring the day’s catch faster to the wet market, fresh and with a higher market value than one that had been waiting half the day to be sold.
“If we did not have the pump boat, the sellers among us would need to wait for the other fishing boats to become vacant,” Paul said.
Residents of these other non-mining villages have received similar financial assistance from the company’s SDMP efforts ranging from farm productivity support and construction of vital infrastructure of facilities.
Among these are a road repair project in Cantilan’s Barangay Tapi that enabled agri-merchants to transport their goods faster and safer to the markets, fertilizers to farmers in Brgy. Panayogon in Madrid, and hundreds of thousands of pesos worth of livestock products for livestock raisers in Buntalid, Bugsukan, Tigabong, and Magasang.
“As a catalyst for community development, mining firms like Marcventures view the distribution of opportunities from mining operations as an important part of doing business,” said Jose Dagala of MMDC.
While other non-mining communities were provisioned with health cards, scholarships for college students, and had feeding activities organized for their barangays, one of the proudest moments for the company’s SDMP was the street lighting of Barangays Tigabong, Cantilan, and Baybay in Carrascal.
Residents of these barangays had long complained about their dark and unsafe streets but through responsible mining, the empowerment and uplifting of communities beyond their own purview isn’t just the cost of doing business, it’s the very real illumination that lets them see their future with clarity and hope.