Blaan kids get school supplies

KORONADAL CITY — A total of 790 ethnic Blaan grade school pupils in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat were provided with school supplies and bags by a private firm and local officials.

Lady Bai S. Mangudadatu, projects monitoring officer of the Columbio local government unit, and their vice mayor, Bai Naila M. Mamalinta, separately told reporters on Tuesday that the school supplies were donated by the Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), which was awarded the contract to operate the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in Tampakan, South Cotabato.

The two officials said 155 pupils in the Polomolok Elementary School, 245 in the Elbebe Elementary School and 50 others in the Kafingol Elementary School benefited from the series of joint outreach missions of the Columbio LGU and the SMI in the past two weeks.

Ms. Mamalinta said they are expecting the expansion of the Columbio LGU and SMI’s joint community-empowerment projects once the firm starts exploring copper and gold in 2025. — John Felix M. Unson