MANILA, Philippines — As in past natural calamities, Filipino miners were among the first to help victims of Typhoon Odette.
From providing clean water and food packages, to construction materials and medical teams, large-scale mining firms rushed to communities near and far from their areas of operation to give solace where it is most needed.
In the Caraga Region, for instance, Nickel Asia Corp. affiliate Taganito HPAL Corp. distributed food packs and rice to families and evacuees from Barangays Urbiztondo and Taganito, as well as construction materials for some 3,600 families from the firm’s host town of Claver in Surigao del Norte. According to partial data provided by Mines and Geosciences Bureau-Caraga regional director Larry Heradez, THPAL’s contribution alone costsome P13 million.
Philex Mining Corp., for its part, gave financial assistance to the Philippine Disaster Resiliency Foundation and the One Meralco Foundation for use in the MVP Group Tulong Kapatid Odette response efforts.
Part of the assistance would be for the purchase of shelter and building materials for local government units in Surigao del Norte that were badly hit by Odette. The company also conducted an employees’ donation drive as well as offered its generator set at its Silangan Mindanao Mining Co. Inc. Project site in Barangay Timamana, Tubod, also in Surigao del Norte, for free charging of mobile phones and other communications devices.
“Member-firms of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines also provide many unquantifiable efforts that are equally valuable in times of disaster, such as the quick response of Emergency Response Teams, the use of company equipment in the clearing efforts and manpower resources,” said COMP chairman Mike Toledo. “These are our employees who were at the scene to help the communities, like doctors who did the rounds and brought first-aid kits in affected barangays.”
Carmen Copper Corp. employees, in fact, delivered food packs – amid toppled electric posts and uprooted trees – to more than 100 residents of Barangay Cantabaco, Toledo City in battered Cebu province while Odette was making landfall in Carcar City, some 37 kilometers south.
Meanwhile, almost 12,000 households benefitted from the joint relief operation conducted by TVIResource Development Philippines Inc., Agata Mining Ventures Inc., Greenstone Resources Corp. and the Villar Sipag Foundation. The initiative was launched a day after Odette hit the two Surigao provinces and Dinagat Islands. Employees of the three companies immediately packed and distributed rice, canned goods and noodles to the typhoon victims.
NAC subsidiaries Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. in Palawan, Cagdianao Mining Corp. in Dinagat Islands, as well as Taganito Mining Corp. and Hinatuan Mining Corp. both in Surigao del Norte provided victims in host and neighboring communities a total of nearly 14,000 sacks of rice and some 10,000 food packs.