Compostela: A valley of promises

NABUNTURAN, Compostela Valley ,Philippines  — Think of a gold rush in Mindanao and Diwalwal comes to mind. This highland mining village notorious in the past for its “wild, wild west” moniker is, in fact, part of Monkayo, the northernmost town of Compostela Valley province and 120 kilometers north of Davao City.

There was no Compostela Valley to speak of then when a Mandaya tribesman found gold in 1983 in Diwalwal, a beautiful land nestled on a cusp of the Mt. Diwata range. There was just Davao del Norte.

In 1998, local leaders successfully sliced off 4,666.93 square kilometers of the mammoth Davao territory and called the new first-class province Compostela Valley that, as of 2007, hosted a diverse ethnic population of 637,366.

The province sits, literally, on gold. Eight of its municipalities, including the capital town of Nabunturan, have huge deposits. Diwalwal alone hosts an estimated P50 billion worth of the precious metal within its 8,100-hectare mineral reservation.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources XI estimates the province’s gold deposits at 181,745,339 metric tons. In 2007, it contributed 50 percent or P184.9 million of the total shares of gold produced in the Davao region to replace erstwhile number one Davao City.

Compostela Valley or ComVal is a raw land of tribal communities, vast rainforests, fertile valleys and plains, un-catalogued marine and terrestrial wildlife, an active volcano, hot and cold springs, and mountains and lakes.

All these wealth are summed up by the Solidarity Ring, the biggest gold ring in the Philippines owned by a local government unit on exhibit on weekdays at the lobby of the capitol in Barangay Cabidianan, five kilometers from the capital town Nabunturan.

ComVal’s second elected governor and incumbent Arturo Uy introduced the idea of forging the two-toned Solidarity Ring weighing 1.5 kilograms of gold and a lesser weight in silver. The raw gold was donated by the province’s small miners, local officials, its two congressional districts, businessmen, and private individuals to celebrate the historic political reconciliation of its divided leaders, 10 years after the province’s birth from the old Davao province in 1998.

Moral revolution

Upon assuming office in July 2007, Gov. Uy began the painful rebuilding of the deteriorating socio-economic and governance structures of the province. He united all political leaders and introduced a sweeping moral recovery program for all employees from the capitol to the municipal halls.

The governor summarized his stand on moral recovery in his message at the First Thanksgiving Day Inter-Faith Assembly at the capitol grounds on Dec. 9, 2008 during which he narrated the social and political state of the province before he assumed office in July 2007:

“Deprivation of equitable public services was prevalent. Efforts to advance progress and development were derailed,” Uy noted in his opening message.

Following his election as governor, Uy immediately acted on his vision of “a new era of unity and good governance,” a rallying call that eventually united the fractious political leaders of Compostela Valley and ended the, at times, bloody political rivalries.

Citing the issues and crises that faced the nation that year, Uy impressed the need for moral revolution. “Confronted with all these crises, we need spiritual enlightenment. We need new values formation. We must re-affirm our moral ascendancy,” he said, describing the 2008 inter-faith gathering as a medium to moderate the magnitude of the crises and an occasion that could generate a “moral and spiritual force” powerful enough to influence human nature and political leaders in the face of “challenges unfolding upon us.”

“When everybody is willing to change for the better, we could find this new spirit as an answer to the current problems that besiege us. Our pursuit for holistic development would not be too far ahead,” Uy concluded.

Uy walked his talk. Within three years, his efforts paid off with the provincial government of Compostela Valley receiving a number of awards for various initiatives, including the 2010 Civil Service Seal of Excellence for the implementation of the Anti-Red Tape Act, the first and only province nationwide to be so honored.

And for his relentless campaign to provide shelter to the homeless poorest of the poor by invoking the spirit of volunteerism, Uy was recognized as National Gawad Kalinga champion. By the end of this year, all the 11 municipalities of Compostela Valley will have their own GK houses.

The award speaks volume about the fruits of good governance and dedication to public service. An environment of peace, progress, and unity started to seep into the consciousness of the people of the province manifested by the gradual but continuing development of Compostela Valley.

The promises of ComVal

ComVal is a relatively young province. It has very rich untapped natural and physical charms from the lush rainforests in the highlands to the coast of the Davao Gulf.

Its major tribes in the hills and valleys — the Mandaya, Mansaka, Kalagan or Ka’gan, Mangguangan, and Dibabawon — continue to hold on to their rich culture, customs, and traditions exemplified by their music, their bamboo-cooked food called lyurot, the native beverage b’yais, and chants.

In the coastal town of Mabini, the Muslim Kalagan or Kagan sustained their culture, customs, and traditions they assimilated through the centuries from their fellow Muslims of major tribes in northern, central, and southern Mindanao, notably the music tradition of the kulintang.

Trek the hills of Golden Valley in Mabini, Masara in Maco, the highlands and lowlands of Maragusan, the valley of Andap in New Bataan, the plains of Ulip in Monkayo, and the slopes of Prosperidad in Montevista. There cultural communities will take the visitor to a journey through their myths and legends.

Every April, teams of mountaineers converge in the Mandaya village of Andap, New Bataan for the regular annual climb to the top of White Peak, popular name for the 2,670-foot Mt. Pandadagsaan, the third highest mountain in Mindanao and considered by mountaineers to be the most difficult to climb.

Maragusan, which hosts scores of majestic waterfalls, cold springs, and hot springs is home to a species of the world’s largest flower, the rafflesia mira, that thrives abundantly in at least 11 sites on the slopes of ComVal’s October climbing event Mt. Kandalaga. Kandalaga hosted the 1998 National Mountaineering Climb and Congress.

Compostela Valley is not all highlands. Three of its towns are along the Davao Gulf and hosts the annual summer beach sports festival hosted by their sprawling beach resorts which won the championship award in the 2010 Search for Best Tourism Event-Sports and Wellness Category of the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) during their annual convention in Subic Bay last year.

Off the coasts of Pindasan in Mabini, two islands - Kopiat and the islet of St. Anthony’s or Lunod - lay serene and brooding. Kopiat’s clean white beaches are nesting sites of the world’s highly endangered hawksbill turtle.

Today the provincial tourism office is tapping these diverse and attractive resources to develop a strong ecotourism program for adventurers and nature lovers.

Because of its rich gold resource, small-scale mining activities are thriving all over the province, supporting 10,000 to 15,000 workers and their families. A provincial environment code is on the drawing board to ensure that the industry’s demands will not jeopardize ComVal’s ecology.

Compostela Valley is home to several fronts of the communist armed New People’s Army, but the rebels limit their businesses in the remote fastnesses of the province’s towering hills and mountains like their comrades elsewhere in the country.

On many occasions, ComVal landed on national and international media in the wake of a series of landslides that left several people dead and homes buried. The provincial government has strengthened its risk management campaign, particularly in vulnerable mining sites to prevent future damage to lives and properties. ComVal, in fact, is not included in the top 10 landslide-prone areas nationwide.

In truth, Compostela Valley is one of the safest places in Mindanao.