TVI

I felt good as I listened to the reactions of colleagues after they had viewed the 2010 TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) Institutional Audio Visual Presentation (AVP) (watch the AVP here) that the Public Affairs team produced in cooperation with all the company’s other departments. The 22-minute documentary film, shot mostly in Canatuan, has brought home the message that while TVIRD is doing business in the ancestral land of the Subanons, it has made a positive impact on hundreds of lives, especially the lumads (indigenous people), one of the most disadvantaged sectors in the Philippines.

“It’s only now that I really appreciated the fact that many people work hard so that our operations will continue to succeed,” says Efren Luy, Lead Man under the Civil Engineering and Services (CES) group. “The roads we are maintaining have helped a lot of farmers and their families. Amazing! We can already produce our own film where we TVIRD employees are also the actors!”

Shot with many of the breathtaking views in Canatuan as backdrops, the AVP anchors on the story of a Subanon family whose members’ lives have changed for the better after TVIRD began mining in their village. It is also about the company and how it won the support of the mixed cultures of peoples – Subanons, Muslims and Christians –residing in its host and impact communities, making TVIRD perhaps the first mining firm to successfully operate in the Zamboanga Peninsula, a post-conflict zone.

“We’ve already come a long way,” comments Teofilo Cayabyab, a former small-scale miner who operated in Canatuan in 1996, about six years before TVIRD embarked on an environmental cleanup in the area. “So many things have changed -- changes that are all for the better.”

While viewing the AVP, he reminisced the hardships that Canatuan residents had to endure because of bad roads, of poor working conditions in makeshift underground tunnels and milling plants, of being exposed to the health hazards posed by cyanide and mercury that polluted bodies of water bodies around Canatuan.

Johnson Lingala, a carpenter of CES agrees with Umpad. Lingala, a Subanon, says he enjoyed watching the film. “We’re ‘high tech!,” he says. “It was like watching a movie. The only difference is that the actors here are from TVIRD. It gives me great joy to see that the company has done so many good things for many people. And I am happy I have contributed to the success of our operations.”

“I wasn’t aware that we were being filmed while we were working at the plant,” Primo Umpad, Flotation Operator, was laughing when he saw himself and his fellow workers at the Mill Plant in the AVP. “The big difference between this film and the movies is that this one is true-to-life!”

“We are proud to be part of TVIRD. It provides good salaries and wages to its employees,” says Neil Natividad, Tool Keeper at the Maintenance Department. “The company prioritizes employee safety and the welfare of those whom the company interacts with, including the government to which TVIRD pays proper taxes in a timely manner.”

“TVIRD offers scholarship to needy children,” adds Manolo Cajatol, Light and Heavy Equipment Mechanic also at Maintenance Department. “We will always support the company so that it will be able to meet its objectives.”

As part of the team that produced the AVP, I’ve had the chance to watched it several times. But it felt different when I saw it again with my fellow employees. There was a great sense of pride in the room whenever the film was played. Like most of them, I saw the company’s sincerity in its efforts to make people’s lives better. Indeed, there can be honor while making profit.