ITOGON, Benguet – Apex Mining, the parent company of the Sangilo-based Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc. (ISRI), won the 2023 Outstanding Labor Management Cooperation for Industrial Peace Award and a Special Awardee of the 2023 Outstanding Grievance Machinery for Industrial Peace given by the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB).
Apex Mining president and chief executive officer Engr. Luis R. Sarmiento formally received the award from Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma during recent simple awarding rites.
Apex Mining’s thrusts of building a solid foundation of labor management within the inherently Filipino value of ‘malasakit’ won the nod of the judges of the prestigious search.
At the awards ceremony, Sarmiento was joined by Apex Mining employee representatives, Romuli Y. Paradiang of the Mine Geology Department; Johndy P. Barrete of the Power Distribution Surface electrical Department; Franco V. Abu-abu of the Mill Operations Department; Rodelio G. Ca-ay of the Finance Department; Stephen G. Salpid of the Mill Maintenance Department; Raymund Icalina of the MBF area; Nathaniel S. Estacion of the Power Distribution Surface Electrical Department and Vice Presidents Billy Torres of Finance and Emelita Fabro of Corporate Administration.
However, the ER for Mine Operations, Rasel P. Masig , was not able to join the awarding ceremony.
NCMB aggressively promotes industrial peace in work places by espousing well rounded worker-employee relationships to help in preventing the occurrence of unnecessary events in the sites that might compromise the reign of industrial peace which might affect the productivity of companies operating in the different parts of the country.
Sarmiento expressed his gratitude to the NCMB for recognizing the company’s effort to sustain the preservation and protection of industrial peace in its work place with the hope that the same will be emulated by other companies operating in the different parts of the country to help in sustaining the overall growth of the economy that had been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sangilo-based ISRI is serving as one of the subsidiaries of the Davao-based Apex Mining and is working on the possible expansion of its current operations in the municipality following the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between ISRI and the Itogon Indigenous Peoples Organization (IIPO) for its APSA 103 for the company to be able to expand its operations and contribute to the local, regional and national economic growth.
The MOA between the company and IIPO is pending before the regional review team of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples prior to its being endorsed for the issuance of the required certification precondition by the Commission en banc.
Itong is one of the mineralized towns in Benguet hosting to the ongoing operations of ISRI, Philex Mining Corporation and Benguet Corporation aside from the presence of the Minahang Bayan that was approved in barangay Luacan for the Luacan Indigenous Pocket Miners Association. It is also a first class municipality relying on mining as one of its major sources of revenue. By Dexter A. See