School building grant awarded to ethnic Blaan children

March 8, 2026 | 12:18pm

KORONADAL CITY — Ethnic Blaan children and their classmates from settler families now have a new two-classroom building on their campus in Barangay Kipalbig, Tampakan, South Cotabato, constructed by a private firm based in Metro Manila.

Radio reports on Sunday, March 8, said that Sheila Mae Ordoña, head teacher of Claudio Delos Reyes Elementary School in Barangay Kipalbig, along with her co-teachers and students, warmly welcomed Armin Antonio Raquel Santos, vice president of Melco Resorts (Philippines) Foundation Corporation (Melco Foundation), the provider of the new school building, during his visit to their campus last week.

The campus of CDRES, under the Tampakan Schools District of the South Cotabato Schools Division of the Department of Education 12, is located in a remote area of Barangay Kipalbig, within a state-recognized Blaan ancestral domain that spans the entire highland municipality.

Santos was accompanied to the CDRES campus by senior employees of Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI), which also carries out separate community service programs in Tampakan.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. and provincial engineer Lloyd Esparagosa told reporters that SMI officials and employees played a key role in connecting Tampakan’s municipal education officials with the Melco Foundation, enabling the smooth joint implementation of the two-classroom school building project in Barangay Kipalbig in late 2025.

“Our school started with only makeshift classrooms a long time ago.  We have pupils wearing worn out slippers and had no school bags at that time. Their belongings were placed inside plastic cellophane bags as protection from rains,” Ordoña said.

Tamayo, now in his final term as governor of South Cotabato, said he and other local leaders appreciate the Melco Foundation’s education support program in far-flung areas of the province as part of its broader corporate social responsibility initiatives.

He added that the Melco Foundation, through the efforts of SMI and Belle Corporation, donated P100 million last year to the provincial government of South Cotabato, which was used to construct 80 classrooms in public schools across the province.

The classrooms were built in geographically isolated areas in T’boli, Lake Sebu, Surallah, Polomolok, Tampakan and Tupi, as well as in remote parts of Koronadal City, the provincial capital located within the core territory of Region 12.

“We are so thankful to the Melco Foundation and its conduit to our province, the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated,” Tamayo told reporters.

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