Cotabato brass producers awarded with new equipment

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A poorly equipped group producing traditional exportable brassware out of scrap bronze is the latest beneficiary of the government’s trade empowerment intervention Shared Service Facility (SSF).

The office of the Department of Trade and Industry in Cotabato City on Wednesday provided the production center in Kalangangan District of the Cotabato Brassware Association (CBA) with P177,776-worth of SSF equipment to boost the group’s productivity.

The DTI earlier extended SSF equipment support to a local Muslim business chamber, an organization of fishpond owners and workers engaged in smoked milkfish (bangus) production and an association of residents manufacturing bags and home decors out of dried water hyacinth stalks.

Carlito Nuñez, in-charge of the city’s DTI office, and Mohammad Mang, president of the CBA, signed last Wednesday an agreement on the SSF equipment package. CBA members are skilled brassware craftsmen from the Kalangangan District in Cotabato and from nearby Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao.

The equipments provided include a furnace-type oven for curing molten scrap brass, grinders, a 13-millimeter push drill, an air compressor and a blower, and electric motors for improvised buffing facilities.

The DTI in Region 12, which has jurisdiction over Cotabato City, had earlier entered into SSF tie-ups with producers of processed foods and traditional products in other provinces in Central Mindanao.

The SSF packages were released through the provincial offices of the DTI-12 in Sarangani, South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

The turnover of the equipment to beneficiaries was observed by representatives from the Commission on Audit and supply and property inspection officers of the regional office of DTI-12.

The SSF program in Cotabato City, which started in 2013, aims to empower community-level industries to generate employment and boost the productivity of beneficiary groups.

Nuñez urged the brassware producers to maximize the use of the SSF equipment to ensure the quality and competitiveness of their products.

Nuñez said the group, the latest to benefit from the SSF intervention for local entrepreneurs, must maintain the condition of their equipment, based on the agreement he and Mang signed last Wednesday.