Blaan Elders in South Cotabato Enhance Entrepreneurial Skills

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines — A group of elderly Blaan traders in Tampakan, South Cotabato, underwent an entrepreneurial development workshop over the weekend as part of a livelihood support program aimed at accelerating economic growth in their communities. Tampakan, a state-recognized Blaan ancestral domain, is one of the ten towns in South Cotabato in Region 12. The Entrepreneurial Development and Values Reorientation for Senior Citizens Workshop, facilitated by the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated, more commonly known as the SMI, focused on providing participants with ample insights into small and medium enterprise initiatives and how to connect with traders in other areas for them to earn more via innovative trading schemes and by ensuring good quality of their marketable products. The day-long workshop was held at the field base of the SMI, also in Barangay Tablu. A Blaan community leader, Bae Lolita Puli, told reporters on Tuesday that she and other elderly Blaans from different areas in Barangay Tablu who participated in the workshop are grateful to officials and employees of the SMI for having embarked on the activity. She said they learned from the workshop the importance of trading cooperation among entrepreneurs to maximize earnings and how to improve the marketability of their merchandise that they circulate in Barangay Tablu and in nearby areas. “We appreciate a lot the efforts of the SMI and other entities that cooperated in facilitating the workshop,” Puli, a Blaan community leader in Barangay Tablu, said. South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. said on Tuesday that he is grateful to the SMI for embarking on the activity, which augurs well with the efforts of his office to improve the business climate in Tampakan as part of their campaign to sustain the peace now spreading around the municipality, long cleared jointly by the police and military from the presence of the New People’s Army. Tamayo, chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council 12, said a progressive, stable economy in Tampakan can generate employment and provide marginalized villagers with livelihood opportunities that can generate for them the income needed for the schooling of their children and other needs of their families.