SMI Graduates 117 Scholars in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Another large group of scholars finished college courses this year as beneficiaries of the Education Assistance Program of a private mining firm slated to operate soon in a mineral-rich town in South Cotabato province. Radio reports on Saturday in Central Mindanao quoted ranking education officials in Region 12 as saying that 117 more scholars of the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI), many of them ethnic Blaans, had graduated this year from different southern tertiary schools, expected to have decent jobs soon. Local executives, among them Joel Calma and Maria Theresa Constantino, vice mayors of Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Malungon in Sarangani, respectively, had separately said that the SMI had, since 2018, produced 1,056 professionals despite not even having started operating yet in Tampakan, South Cotabato. Many of the beneficiaries of the SMI scholarship program are now employed as nurses, teachers, engineers, veterinarians and accountants in local government units and line agencies and in private companies, according to local executives in Tampakan, in Malungon, in Kiblawan and in Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat. The SMI was contracted by the national government to operate the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project, with a written Free and Prior Consent from the ethnic Blaan community in Tampakan and from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. Some of the 117 scholars who finished college courses this year as SMI scholars belong to marginalized families once identified with the now defunct New People’s Army, now thriving peacefully in mountain ranges in Tampakan and in hinterlands in Region 12 and in Davao del Sur province in Region 11, according to Major Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army's 10th Infantry Division, and his counterpart in the 6th ID, Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara. South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., presiding chairperson of the Regional Peace and Security Council 12, said the scholarship program of the SMI augurs well with the peacebuilding thrusts of their provincial government, partly focused on fostering peace and sustainable development in far-flung areas through free, quality education. “Many of those who finished college courses as company scholars in recent years are residents in different towns in my province and in our provincial capital, Koronadal City," Tamayo said. Rolly Aquino, a nurse who is overseeing the operation of the South Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said the SMI also has capacity-building interventions meant to boost the emergency response capability of the barangay and municipal governments in areas to be covered by the soon-to-start Tampakan Copper-Gold Project. The project, to commence possibly by 2028, is being openly supported by officials of the influential Mindanao Business Council, the Blaan and T’boli tribal leaders in South Cotabato and the Regional Development Council 12, whose chairperson is Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza. Blaan and T'boli tribal leaders are active in staging rallies to publicly manifest their imprimatur for the project.