Philex supports ‘National Cleanup Month’
TUBA, Benguet – In support of the government’s celebration of September as “National Cleanup Month,” the Philex Padcal mine recently cleaned up a river at its mine camp that it also “adopted” as part of its environmental protection program, with officials and employees collecting rubbish from the riverbed and planting bamboos along the riverbanks.
About 90 personnel from Padcal mine’s 15 departments participated in the cleanup and planting of 200 seedlings of tinik, bayog and giant bamboos at the two-kilometer Sal-angan River, in Itogon’s Barangay Ampucao. Itogon and Tuba are the host towns of the company’s gold and copper operations in this province.
“That’s how we do things around here – always bring any environmental-protection project or an event a notch higher,” said Eduardo Aratas, manager of Padcal’s legal division. “Not only did we rid the river of rubbish, but also plant trees.”
Julius Bayogan, manager of Padcal’s environmental quality, monitoring and evaluation department, said the cleanup of Sal-angan River and other waterways at the mine camp has been a regular activity for Philex Mining, which has been in the forefront of environmental protection and community development over more than six decades of practicing responsible mining conscientiously.
He said the 90 Padcal personnel collected 15 sacks of rubbish from the riverbed, eight sacks of which were residual wastes, four sacks of plastic bottles, two sacks of tin cans, one sack of various rubber items like slippers, hoses and boots.