What I’ve learned about inclusive development

When my fellow intern Saima Pantakan and I entered the Aboitiz Power office in Davao City, I wondered what I could learn from the company, which was engaged in generating electricity.

I am not an engineer nor a technician nor an electrician, so I did not quite feel that I belonged there.

Then we met Jason Magnaye, who gave us our assignments. I was sent to work on environmental concerns with pollution control officer Diego Tautho.

I learned about the carbon sink management program, a requirement for environmental compliance certificates (ECCs), that would equalize or absorb carbon dioxide emissions.

The program, located in Marilog District in Davao City, is supposed to run for 10 years. In its early years, the project worked with 51 community partners, mostly from the Matigsalog tribe, who set aside

2 hectares of their lands for the project.

Sustainable livelihood

Therma South Inc. (TSI) provided seedlings, established a nursery and conducted trainings on capacity building and nursery establishment, seedling propagation, soil and water conservation, and multiple cropping. It also supported the project’s maintenance.

The company did not just give financial support. It also empowered its partners to be resourceful and taught them how to enrich and protect their environment for sustainable livelihood.

We visited the Marilog area with TSI forester Perry Maningas. Our first stop was Marahan East, where the nursery was located.

At Sitio Namnam, where the other community partners lived, we met Aurelio Embang, who said many partners had planted their seedlings.

We were briefed on TSI, which was going to put up a coal-fired power plant (CFPP) in Barangay Binugao, Davao City, and Barangay Inawayan, Santa Cruz town, to produce electricity.

For the very first time, I saw coal, which was imported from Indonesia. I also got introduced to a circulating fluidized bed, a new technology to be used in the project.

I learned that a filter was used to minimize, if not eliminate, the emission of sulfur and nitrogen oxide.

I also learned that one of the project’s requirements was the creation of the multipartite monitoring team (MMT), which was composed of representatives of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Environment Management Bureau, the local government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and other concerned groups and agencies.

The MMT monitors the construction of CFPP to ensure that it complies with ECC guidelines and does not have an adverse effect on the environment and communities.

Not just for profit

In my two-week internship with TSI, I realized that the objective of a company and industry should not be only to make a profit.

Success means a lot of research, planning, hiring  the right people and, most of all, concern for the environment and community.

I realized that corporate social responsibility and the officers who dealt directly with communities were important in ensuring success.

In its environment impact statement, I was amazed at how seriously TSI took its research on the condition of the environment. It also spent a lot of time predicting and analyzing the environmental impacts of the project on the environment and community.

Best of all, TSI identified measures to minimize, if not prevent, those negative impacts.

I realized that building a company should not only mean profit for the owner but also bring employment and programs to the community. It means taxes for the government and contributing to the progress of the country as a whole.

The author, 26, is the class valedictorian of Mindanao State University (Marawi City) Class of 2009. She works for Iranun Mangroves Growers Association and Tasbikka Inc., an alliance of farmers in her hometown of Parang town, Maguindanao province. She was endorsed by the UK-based NGO International Alert to be allowed to immerse herself in the work of TSI in Davao City.