Members of the Blaan Indigenous Cultural Community (ICC) of Sbangken in Tampakan, South Cotabato expressed their support for Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI)’s mining project in celebration of the National Indigenous People’s Month.
According to news, the yearly celebration was seen as an opportunity to remind the public of the rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) that allows them to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures, and traditions and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations, including the right to pursue their own visions of economic and social development.
Earlier this year, the Sbangken ICC, along with ten other ICCs living within the mine area, signed a memorandum of agreement with SMI that formalized their consent to pursue the Tampakan operations within their ancestral domain.
It was reported that the Free and Prior Information Consent (FPIC) process took more than eight years of intensive consultation, marked with utmost transparency and maximum participation, before all 11 ICCs freely gave their consent and collective decision favoring the Tampakan project.
“Pro-Mining kami,” Chieftain of Sbangken ICC Linsay Sanuhay said in the report.
According to Sanuhay, the lives of the indigenous peoples, especially their children, became better because of SMI. While the youth were given the opportunity to finish college education, families were provided with various livelihood programs.
Barangay Tablu Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representation (IPMR) Representative Enteng Gatsulao appealed to the public to understand and respect their decision to allow the operations to proceed.
