GAMAWA is a 21-strong fishermen’s cooperative in a mining community of barangay Wanke, Claver, Surigao del Norte. Republic Act 11535, creating the position of a Cooperatives Development Officer (CDO) mandatory in all local government units (LGUs), was signed into law last April 9.   This directs the LGUs – from the municipal, city, and provincial levels – to appoint its own CDO. In Taganito Mining Corp. (TMC), a CDO is a regular job description – someone in charge of identifying promising groups in different sectors in the communities to guide and assist them to organize their own cooperatives. Edelina E. Peraz is the Community Development Coordinator at TMC and she says “as a mining company, TMC is tasked by law to ensure social and economic development of the communities and we have long acknowledged the significance of a successful cooperative to achieve this” says Peraz. One of the organizations that Peraz has been assisting since its inception is the Gagmay’ng Mananagat sa Wangke (GAMAWA), a cooperative of small fishermen in barangay Wanke, in Claver, Surigao del Norte. Last month, GAMAWA recorded another big harvest – a total of 4,270 kilos of bangus that converted a total sale of P480,238.00 pesos.  But their biggest record was last December when they harvested 7,928 kilos of bangus that sold for a whopping P889,292.00. GAMAWA President, Felix Saranza’s leadership style is key to the success of the organization.  CDOs, Urbiztondo (right) and Peraz (left) express that his success is TMC’s success as well.  The success of GAMAWA also showcases the effective leadership of its president, Felix Saranza. “It is important to understand the interests of the individual member and of the whole group, to keep the organization intact, until everyone gets the taste of the fruits of everyone’s labor,” says Saranza. “It is a democracy, I cannot decide until everyone involved agrees, so it can be very hard sometime, but in the end, it is all worth it because members actively participate when they know they have a say in decision making,” Saranza adds. “We owe all our accomplishment to the support of TMC,” Saranza declares. Since 2017, TMC has inputted an accumulated fund of some P5.5 million pesos from the mining company’s Social Development Management Program to help GAMAWA build state-of-the-art fish cages in a 450-square meter area with 3 chambers that can handle 30,000 bangus fingerlings in a single cropping. “In a cooperative where you have members with different personal quirks, different economic challenges and demands, different issues, you need a strong leader respected by everyone to keep things together, and Mr. Saranza is perfect for the role” explains another CDO, Judy B. Urbiztondo, Senior Community Development Specialist for TMC Urbiztondo says the Co-op of GAMAWA has gone through a lot of challenges and sacrifices that taught the members valuable life lessons that got them to what they enjoy today – a strong cooperative and a sustainable livelihood.  But success, according TMC’s CDOs, means the cooperative will be able to grow the fish farm bigger to better the lives of its 21 members for years and years to come. “Taganito Mining’s partnership with GAMAWA aims to prove the strength of a collaborative effort between the mining company and its communities toward a shared goal of empowering cooperatives,” explains Engr. Artemio E. Valeroso, Resident Mine Manager at TMC. Valeroso adds that another worthy take away from the success story of GAMAWA are the information from the members that help define how communities can actually take active part in the success of societies. Taganito Mining is located in Claver, province of Surigao del Norte. Its area of operations is within the Surigao Mineral Reservation.

As a fresh batch of ducklings hatch in an eclectic farm in Taganito Mining, so begins the important step towards fulfilling a dream of having a balut production farm within the mine site. Filipinos love balut.  As a matter of fact, balut is associated with the Pinoy’s exotic palate and is accepted as a national delicacy in the Philippines, our “national street food”. The town of Pateros in Taguig City is the acknowledged balut capital of the country but agriculturists in Taganito Mining Corp. (TMC) believe that there is a big market for balut in Claver, Surigao del Norte, so they started to dream of having their own balut production as means of livelihood for the communities in this mining area.  “Our main goal is to assist our partner communities and teach them to become producers of balut in the whole of Claver and adjacent towns, with lower prices so people can afford and enjoy balutproduced in their own backyards,” says Danding Elizalde, Agriculturist at TMC and the project’s overall coordinator. A likely recipient of the balut production technology that TMC is developing is the Sapa Integrated Farmers' Association (SIFAS), one of the people organizations (POs) that TMC supports under the mining company’s Social Development Management Program (SDMP).  SIFAS already has a duck farm but they are selling their egg produce until they are able to produce balut to sell. “TMC is our biggest support in terms of funding and know-how and we cannot wait for our dream to have a balut production here in Claver,” says Mr. Virgelio Buyan, SIFAS President. The critical first step is to grow a healthy batch of “breeders”. Elizalde says that Ducks are one of the simplest animals to raise.  They are resilient against unpredictable weather changes and do not consume a lot of time to nurture and grow. TMC, a subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC), has always been on the lookout for sustainable community projects to develop and to pass on to the residents of the company’s host communities, and the Environmental Department of TMC that takes care of the protection and enhancement of the environment in the mining communities came upon the exciting idea of balut production.  “After the initial learnings, we’ve warmed up to the system of caring for the ducks and we found out it’s a piece of cake really as we do the feeding and cleaning of cages in between our daily activities and would take turns in collecting the eggs that would be laid during night,” shares Elizalde. “It is very important to document every challenge we’ve encountered,” says Vince Ivan Libao, OIC-Environmental Manager for TMC, and Elizalde’s immediate superior. One of the bigger hurdles was when TMC did not have an incubator. The eggs would be sold to employees every time because it was difficult to hatch them into ducklings since mother ducks would not warm on their eggs and there were bush rats that feed on them at night. “We could not grow healthy breeders because we could not hatch most of our eggs so an incubator became a necessity so we had one fabricated in Surigao City for P60,000 pesos” explains Libao. But with an incubator, TMC started producing ducklings and perfected the system that now produce fertile eggs with better hatchability rate with the target to produce 500 ducklings in the next few months. At the moment, TMC is able to hatch 60 ducklings at a time and is getting nearer to the realization of its dream of having an efficient balut production farm. TMC mine site is located in barangays Hayanggabon, Urbiztondo, Taganito and Cagdianao, in the municipality of Claver, province of Surigao del Norte.  Its area of operations is within the Surigao Mineral Reservation. 

As part of its commitment to contribute to local economy, Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC), a subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC), handed over its tax payments amounting to P75.5 million to the municipality of Claver. The payments consist of P 65,329,304.37 million in Business Tax and P 10,169,769.60 in Real Property Tax which were handed last December 14, 2020 and January 20, 2021, respectively. The handover of tax payments was led by Mine Accountant Cristy Mae Comandante-Pariño, Division Manager Salvador Cabauatan and Comrel Manager Roel Paniza. On behalf of Claver LGU, the tax payments were received by Municipal Treasurer Caryl Cagas-Lukban, in the presence of Municipal Administrator Atty. Jeffrey Galido and Sanggunian Bayan members. “TMC is committed to creating a positive impact in our host and neighboring communities and one way we do this is by ensuring timely payment of our taxes which translates into projects and services for the community. This is on top of our Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program funds,” shares TMC Resident Mine Manager Artemio E. Valeroso. Based on data from the Commission on Audit consolidating the total assets of LGUs in 2019, the mining town of Claver ranked 1st among the richest municipalities in Mindanao with P 1.91 billion worth of assets. Meanwhile, Surigao del Norte ranked 6th among the richest provinces in the country with P 16.68 billion worth of assets. TMC is a four-time awardee of the Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative for Excellence in Reporting of payments made to the government. TMC also ranked 14th among the Department of Finance’s list of Top 500 taxpayers who filed their income tax returns ahead of the deadlines which were deferred due to lockdowns during the pandemic. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, TMC has mobilized over P 19.1 million to extend relief goods, medical supplies, test kits and other assistance to its host and neighboring communities in the province of Surigao del Norte.