OCEANAGOLD DIDIPIO GOLD COPPER PROJECT JOINED DEBIBI VILLAGE FIESTA

Oceanagold (Didipio Gold Copper Project) joined the 3-day celebration of Debibi Village's fiesta. Debibi Village is in the province of Quirino in northern Luzon, Philippines. Debibi Village is downstream of Didipio Gold Copper Project impact area. The fiesta was culminated on the third day by a Medical-Dental-Optical Mission sponsored by Oceanagold. This medical-dental-optical mission brought free medical services and free medicine to a far flung village in Northern Luzon in the Philippines.










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Handicapped Residents of Didipio Valley Used to Keep Oceanagold's Vegetable Nursery

An ‘organic’ vegetable nursery was previously maintained by handicapped residents of Barangay Didipio in Nueva Vizcaya.

It provides employment to handicapped residents of Brgy. Didipio and augments the demand of vegetables in the valley.

Introduced in August 2003, the vegetable seeds are purchased by Oceanagold Philippines, Inc. and raised at Oceanagold's ‘organic’ vegetable nursery for free distribution to the community.

“Didipio residents do not want to buy vegetables in the lowlands because they are not organically raised” said Miguel Tumitit (man in the picture who used to work for Oceanagold).

More than 60,000 vegetable seedlings were distributed to the Didipio residents since the start of the project. They include pechay, cabbage, sili, eggplant tomato, mustard and Chinese pechay.

The community is very supportive of the ‘organic’ vegetable nursery and encourages their neighboring Barangays to start their own ‘organic’ vegetable nursery.

The "free vegetable seedling" program should have a comeback including the hiring of handicapped to tend to Oceanagold's vegetable nursery.




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Oceanagold's Didipio Project Feeding Program Support

Officials of Quirino Provincial Social Welfare Development monitor the feeding program record of sponsored children at Tubo, with cases of malnutrition based on the survey conducted by RHU Cabarroguis. PSWD Officer Lourdes Matammu, Dr. Rosie Taganas, Mrs. Edy Madriaga and Mrs. Nelly Miranda form the oversight committee in implementing the feeding project sponsored by OceanaGold Philippines.

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Mrs. Lilian Hangdaan,teacher-in-charge of Upper Dingasan Elementary School in Tubo, tests one of the heavy-duty burners granted by OceanaGold. DSWD prepares the program, OceanGold provides the foods and DepEd implements the feeding. Mrs. Hangdaan handles the program in Tubo while Mrs. Grace Binlayan implements the program in Dingasan.





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Didipio Project Touching Lives: Didipio Community

In the Community - Philippines, By Arnel Arrojo

In the Philippines there are a number of key initiatives and projects both the company and staff undertake. Some of these are:

• Tree planting under the “Trees for Life” program, where the Department of Environment and Natural Resources aim to plant 20 million trees nationwide.

• Team building seminars for OceanaGold staff on working harmoniously and efficiently.

• Basic training on journalism and photography, which is intended to develop the hidden talents of OceanaGold staff and the community and establish a community newsletter.

• Medical Dental Mission in collaboration with the Philippine Army, Department of Health and Local Government Units.

• First aid and Emergency Preparedness Drills for the staff and community. One of the most recently celebrated initiatives held in the Philippines is Nutrition Month which occurs in July. Nutrition Month was created under Presidential Decree (P.D. No. 491 June 25, 1974) and is today managed by the Municipal Nutrition Council (MNC) of Kasibu and chaired by Dr. Elizabeth Joaquin of the Municipal Health Unit. The aim of the initiative is to raise funds for the feeding program of MNC for the indigent daycare children of selected barangays in Kasibu.

As in previous years, OceanaGold and some of its contractors ( Drillcorp, CCF and New Life Constructions) contributed to the fund-raining campaign. Our Philippine staff also joined the parade and took part in the month’s celebrations which brought a lot of colour and fun to the town.

The Didipio Green Valley Institute, a community high school which OceanaGold helped establish, marked the occasion by holding various contests on nutrition.

This included writing posters and essays and preparing healthy foods. Some of our staff had the pleasure of tasting the foods prepared by the students and were very impressed, definitely a few cooks and chefs in the making!

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Oceanagold's Didipio Project Scholarships Reviewed

Camilo Bahingawan, proud father of one OceanaGold Scholar at Quirino State College in Quirino acknowledges the importance of the scholarship assistance his daughter received from OceanaGold and urged other parents to support the program.

Dr. Hermana K. Banciles, (center) Director for Instruction at Quirino State College, recapped the successful Consultative Dialogue with a signing of Memorandum of Agreement with Didipio Green Valley Institute principal Mr. Esmeraldo Carpio for the mutual assistance in which QSC donated books for DGVI. Tucod National High School & Andres Bonifacio Integrated School also availed of the assistance being given by QSC as part of its outreach program

Corazon Alma De Leon, Secretary General of Philippine National Red Cross and currently Director for Social Affairs of OcenaGold, delivers her message before the OceanaGold Scholars at Nueva Vizcaya State University. She challenged the scholars to put premium value on the scholarship they received as their successful performance will inspire OceanaGold to provide more scholarship grants for other
students. Earlier, Sec/De Leon also graced the same dialogue with OceanaGold Scholars at Quirino State College in Diffun, Quirino.



OceanaGold (Philippines) scholars at Quirino State College (QSC), together with their parents, had a dialogue with QSC administration and OceanaGold officials headed by Cora de Leon, OGPI Director for Social Affairs, for the improvement of scholarship program in QSC.

Dr. Marilou Gilo-Abon, First President of Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU) delivers her message to OceanaGold scholars at NVSU. She mentioned of the proposal submitted to the University of the
Philippines for the extension of Geology, Mining and Metallurgy Engineering courses in NVSU, citing that the proposal is logical because of the presence of large scale mining projects in Nueva Vizcaya
and that it will be beneficial to students from the Region 2.

Marilyn Sarac, a student leader and one of the 25 OceanaGold scholars at Quirino State College, expresses her appreciation of the OceanaGold Scholarship Program and its good implementation by QSC Administration.

Alfredo Dumingyay Jr. an Environmental Science student and scholar of OceanaGold in Nueva Vizcaya State University, inspired his peers with words of wisdom and challenges to make the best from the privilege which they received from the scholarship program of OceanaGold. He came out with suggestions how it can reach out for more needy students.

Nueva Vizcaya State University and OceanaGold officials, answers queries and provide clarifications on issues of implementing scholarship. Arnel Arrojo, Regional manager for Community Partnership (2nd from left), mentioned that future scholarship shall be available to technical courses especially to those skills applicable to the mining operation of OceanaGold. Presently, OceanaGold and NVSU-Bambang is forging a Memorandum of Agreement to train 45 Didipio and Dingasan residents on various trades using NVSU programs and facilities.

Margie Julian from Didipio receives the Scholarship certificates which provides her and other scholars free tuition fee until she graduates provided she maintain the required academic grades. 25 students from NVSU and 25 students from QSC received the same privilege scholarship award.

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Better Roads, Better Opportunities for the Communities

Life in Didipio between the 1970’s to 1990’s was difficult if you wished to travel around the local area. There were no regional, local or all-weather roads connecting Didipio to the National Highway and even access to other barangays was limited. It once took 7-8 hours to visit nearby places and worse, sometimes a day or so to go to the next town as there were no fixed trails. With this scenario, people’s livelihood was greatly affected.

Victor Ananayo (Mang Victor) a resident of Purok 7, Sitio Waterfalls, Barangay Didipio remembers the difficulties encountered by he and his neighbors.

Having been in the barangay since 1969, he recalls some of the hardships that he himself and other locals went through during those days. People then were dependent on slash and burn or “kaingin” and planting crops as their main source of living. After harvesting crops, they still had to travel far to transport their produce to other towns. Mang Victor said that during the 70’s they walked for two days to reach the town to trade two cans of ginger (approximately 10 kilograms each can) in exchange for 5.00 pesos (2.50 each). Their effort and time were not proportionate to the value of the money from selling which had been their routine for the longest time.

During the interview, Mang Victor mentioned that with the entry of OceanaGold’s Didipio Gold-Copper Project, there was a remarkable change in the barangay and in the entire province as well. Roads were built. People could now travel from one place to another more readily and in less time as well as transfer their fresh crops and agricultural products with greater ease.

Didipio is now accessible from the north commencing at the National Highway at Cordon, Isabela and continuing along a concrete paved road to Cabarroguis, Quirino. A graveled all-weather road is now available to Debibi traversing a concrete bridge over the Debibi River and graveled-paved road to Tucod. OceanaGold is building and maintaining a 22-kilometer road from Debibi to Didipio.

OceanaGold’s Community Relations Office led by Manager Arnel Arrojo was involved in the
negotiations with the residents before any road construction activities started.Social concerns were identified and immediate resolutions to any issues arising from construction activities were made. The Community Relations representatives explained to the residents the benefits and importance of having better roads.

Information meetings were conducted with communities attended by barangay officials and
residents. There were presentations on the road plan indicating the extent of work, Road Right of Way policies, crops and structure inventory, crop compensation schemes, improvements on affected claims and conduct of safety and environmental procedures. The meetings also notified the affected land owners of the cutoff period when land claimants may no longer plant compensable crops.

Having briefed with all the benefits ahead, Mang Victor and his fellow residents were encouraged to cooperate and became open-minded and decided to sell their crops.

Mang Victor invested the money for a piece of land in another town where he plants crops like rice or “palay” for livelihood and family consumption. He also plants red chandler, ginger and banana from which he earns additional income.

The new roads are part of OceanaGold’s commitment to assist in the development of the area
as the Didipio mine is constructed. OceanaGold has provided job opportunities for locals of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino provinces including one of Mang Victor’s children who works as a carpenter at the Didipio Project. Mang Victor himself has assisted the company by building and supplying boxes for drill core.

Skills enhancement programs and artisan training have also been part of the programs delivered in the local community. These include training in mechanics, welding, automotive, clonal techniques, electrical wiring system, etc.

Mang Victor shared that the residents were given the opportunity to get involved in the various training programs and would later share and apply the knowledge and skills with other residents. One of his sons attended training on clonal/ cloning technology in a nursery held at Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya.

Mang Victor in final reflection emphasized that he would like to see OceanaGold stay for many years to come and to continue to assist in making their province a better place to live in….

Didipio Project Touching Lives: Education and Livelihood

Pictures courtesy of Ramoncito Gozar