November 22, 2025 | 6:11pm
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The medical and health service thrusts of a predominantly-Blaan barangay in Tampakan, South Cotabato got a boost with ample supplies of medicines for various ailments and a storage refrigerator donated by a private firm as part of its corporate social responsibility initiative.
Local executives in Tampakan, a hinterland town in South Cotabato, told reporters on Saturday, November 22, that community leaders in Barangay Lampitak, among them ethnic Blaan chieftains and barangay health workers received the essential provisions from the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) during a turnover rite last October 27.
Lampitak Barangay Chairman Marinilio Ngalon and their community service nurse, Rendylle Silvela, separately said on Saturday that they have since been distributing to sick villagers the assorted medicines from SMI, which is supporting the operations of all of the barangay health centers in Tampakan for more than a decade now.
“The refrigerator donated to us, delivered to our barangay by employees of the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated, is where we now store medicines and vaccines that need refrigeration,” Ngalon told reporters.
Lampitak, home to mixed indigenous Blaan residents and non-Blaan settlers, is a highland town in Tampakan, about 20 kilometers from Koronadal City, the capital of South Cotabato.
Provincial officials in South Cotabato told reporters on Saturday that local executives in Tampakan, Blaan tribal chieftains and employees of the SMI are together implementing in the municipality the education, health, social services and other community-empowerment activities of the firm under its extensive Social Development and Management Program.