STA. CRUZ, Davao del Sur — The Bagobo-Tagabawa community in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur is a recipient of various infrastructure projects worth PHP13 million from Hedcor, Incorporated which operates a hydro-power plant in this town. For the first half of this year, Hecor turned over to the community a training center, water systems, tribal halls and access roads. Boy Jabonillo, Hedcor vice president for business development, said the deserving tribal beneficiaries are residing in Barangay Sibulan in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur and Barangay Sibulan City Side, Davao City. Jabonillo said “the dreams of the Indigenous People (IPs) in Hedcor host communities are finally coming true after years of aspiring, planning and working for must-have basic structures.” The training center was provided to Sitio Mamaon of Barangay Sibulan City Side. The tribal halls were named as Pogpog Tribal Hall for Sitio Tudaya, Barangay Sibulan; Sibulan Tribal Hall for Barangay Sibulan; Sibulan City Side Tribal Hall; and Jose Rizal Tribal Hall for Barangay Jose Rizal, all of Sta. Cruz, and Kapatagan Tribal Hall for Barangay Kapatagan, Digos City. Jabonillo said the water systems were installed at Sitio Tudaya, Barangay Jose Rizal; Sitio Mareras and Sitio Sinorongan in Barangay Sibulan City Side. He said the people at Sitio Tudaya have gained access to farm-to-market road through a road opening from Lower Pogpog to Centro Pogpog, which provides easy transport of farm goods. The Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe expressed thanks to Hedcor for providing their communities 11 infrastructures, saying that the projects were dreams come true to them, Jabonillo said. The IPs vowed to take care of the projects and assured the company that all their efforts will not be wasted. “Without the trust and support of the community, Hedcor’s dream of making lives better through sufficient supply of power would not have come true. Thus, a big part of the company’s success is theirs,” said Hedcor vice president Rolando Pac-quiao. Hedcor is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power owning and operating 22 run-ofiver hydropower plants in Davao, Benguet, Mountain Province and Ilocos Sur with a total capacity of 185 MWs. (PNA)