TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato – South Cotabato tribal leaders cite their inherent rights to development, even as they continue to call upon the national government to ensure that the proposed Tampakan project proceed as planned.

Koronadal City tribal council head Ben Dalimbang, speaking at a recent gathering of tribal chieftains from South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, and Sarangani, said it is their right to aspire for sustainable development using all available resources.

“With the Tampakan project, we have the opportunity to achieve real and sustainable progress and we intend to invoke our right to this opportunity,” Dalimbang said.

According to Dalimbang, the South Cotabato tribal communities have been clamouring for real progress.

“We deserve more than dole-outs from government agencies, missionaries or non-government organizations,” Dalimbang said.

Dalimbang also called on the national government to look into the real situation in the province, and said that Malacañang must listen to the sentiments of tribal communities hosting the proposed Tampakan mining project.

Dalimbang said the South Cotabato tribal leaders will continue to study all options that can bring them development, including the proposed Tampakan mining project.

“We have prepared for this, we have been educating ourselves on the mining issues,” Dalimbang said.

Dalimbang also said that the communities right now are more vigilant in terms of ensuring that mining projects are done the right way.

“In South Cotabato, we have a very active media sector and we intend to use this sector to ensure that we are protected,” Dalimbang said.

The South Cotabato tribal council leadership said they have been more active recently in engaging media expressing their support for the Tampakan mining project.

In another development, thousands of farmers in the five provinces and six cities in the Caraga Region started to feel the government’s intervention as more infrastructure projects of the national government, and co-funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), are set to be completed by the end of this year.

Under the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project (ARISP) Phase II, a total of P231 million worth of infrastructure investments will be completed by 2011.

ARISP is a project that involves a tri-partite approach and a collaboration between the implementing agencies It involves construction and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, farm-to-market roads, post harvest facilities, rural water supply systems, and acqua-culture information and marketing center building, among others.

The Region-13 office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR- 13) is also set to start another multi-million-peso project focusing on value-chain, and co-funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) by first semester next year that will cover four provinces in the Caraga Region.

Agriculture contributes about 22 percent to the country’s gross national product, despite the low priority it was given in the past in terms of budgetary resources.

It provides income and livelihood to millions of farmers and fisherfolk, and their dependents.

It enables traders, processors, retailers, and other groups to, directly or indirectly, make a living.

Given these potentials, it is only logical that the agriculture sector be fully harnessed towards enhancing agricultural productivity and improving the incomes and welfare of farmers and fisherfolk. (Nonoy E. Lacson and Mike U. Crismundo)