A four-day  Seminar Workshop on Enhancing Community Engagement Strategies for Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) Formulation and Implementation  was conducted for the thirty Nine (39) Community Relations Officers from the different mining and mineral processing companies in Region X held at the Grand Caprice , Limketkai Center, Cagayan de Oro  City on January 21-24, 2019.

Participants were representatives  from  operating large-scale mining companies under Mineral Production Sharing Agreements , (MPSA), Mineral Processing Permit (MPP), Exploration  Permit (EP) and Industrial Sand and Gravel Permit (ISAG) issued by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

The Seminar-Workshop was aimed to raise the expertise of the ComRel Officers in SDMP formulation and implementation through  harmonious and enhanced community, and key stakeholsders engagement in all phases of the SDMP Cycle.  Moreover, to empower the identified mining communities by capacitating the ComRel to adopt a participatory approach in implementing SDMP and help  strengthen  the capacity of the mining community  in decision  making  which is critical to  community development.

The four-day Seminar Workshop consisted of  three (3) modules such as :

• Module 1 – The Context of Social Development   and Management Program (SDMP) and community Engagement
• Module 2 – Community Engagement as a Strategy  for SDMP Formulation and Implementation : Process, Methods and Tools
• Module 3 – Evaluation and Impact Assessment of SDMP Re-entry Action Plan Formulation

At the end of the modules, the participants were  expected to explain and demonstrate the ways trough which Community Officers  and Community Development perspectives and methodologies are strategically applied in their work as Community Relations  Officers/Managers and implementers of SDMP

Resource speakers were  Ms. Cecile Amihan -Bayas and Mr. Roman Antonio V. Wamil, both  graduates of Bachelor in Science in Community Development from the University of the  Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Ms. Bayas has more than 15 years  of ample experience as   ComRel practitioneer while  Mr. Matt Wamil is a UP professor who involves in research and consultant  for designing strategies  for community development.

To establish unity  and solidarity for a common goal, the ComRel Officers organized themselves  by forming an organization coined CROPAX or  Community Relations Officers and Practitioneers of Region X   having Mr. John Christopher C. Silvosa  as elected President – ComRel Manager of Holcim Resources Development Corporation  –Lugati Plant while Engr.   Roel L. Piloton is the elected Vice President who is the current Environment  and ComRel Manager of Republic Cement Iligan, Inc. and Republic Mindanao Iligan, Inc. based in Brgy. Kiwalan, Iigan City.