Private firm provides P200 million for South Cotabato projects

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February 1, 2026 | 4:08pm

COTABATO CITY —The Melco Resorts Foundation (MRF) and the provincial government of South Cotabato will jointly construct three health service facilities, costing P200 million, across three sites in the province.

Radio reports in Central Mindanao on Sunday, February 1, stated that the cooperation deal was finalized during a meeting in Manila last week, attended by Armin Antonio Santos, vice president of MRF; Roy Deveraturda, president of Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI); Ram Edward Tardaguela of Integrated Resorts; and Lloyd Esparagosa, provincial engineer of South Cotabato.

The MRF has allocated, as a corporate social responsibility grant, P100 million for the three-storey expansion of the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital, P50 million for the construction of the Koronadal City Infirmary Hospital, and P50 million for a district hospital project in Tantangan town. Tantangan is located near Koronadal City, the capital of South Cotabato, one of the four provinces in Administrative Region 12.

Local executives, including South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., expressed their gratitude to Deveraturda of the SMI, the company contracted by the national government to possibly operate the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in Tampakan town in their province, for facilitating a partnership between their provincial government and the MRF.

“To these two private entities, we are thankful,” Tamayo said, referring to the MRF and the SMI, which are cooperating on corporate social responsibility projects in South Cotabato.

Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, governor of Cotabato province in northern Region 12, told reporters on Sunday that the three hospital projects funded by the MRF, in a deal facilitated by SMI, will strengthen government health services for Muslim, Christian, and indigenous communities in South Cotabato.

“It will also benefit the communities in towns under my jurisdiction that are near South Cotabato province,” Mendoza, presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Development Council 12, said.

Tamayo said they will enlist the help of local humanitarian organizations and the media community in Central Mindanao to monitor the implementation of the three projects, which he and the Provincial Engineer’s Office will jointly oversee.

Permits for the projects have been secured from the Department of Health Region 12, South Cotabato’s Integrated Provincial Health Office, and the local government units of Koronadal City and Tantangan municipality.

Municipal officials in South Cotabato told Sunday’s radio reports that, with support from SMI, the MRF financed the construction in 2024 of 40 one-storey school buildings, totaling 80 classrooms, across various towns in the province. 

They also confirmed that SMI has spent P2.6 billion over the past 10 years on corporate social responsibility projects, including scholarship programs for elementary, high school, and college students across various cities and provinces in Central Mindanao, despite not yet starting its copper and gold mining operations in Tampakan, as permitted by the national government and the leaders of the indigenous Blaan tribe in South Cotabato.