MANILA, Philippines - OceanaGold recently hosted a community festival in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya to mark Celebrate Didipio, tagged as a celebration of the friendship of the Australian mining company with Didipio, the Nueva Vizcaya barangay site of the mining operations of OceanaGold.
More than 1,000 special guests representing various stakeholders joined employees, families, friends and business associates of the company in the celebration.
“Celebrate Didipio is a perfect time to show our total commitment to the barangay which has allowed us to live and work and do business in the community with complete peace and goodwill,” said Chito Gozar, communications and external affairs senior vice president.
“It is also a great opportunity for our employees, families and friends to come together to reflect on how we can contribute further to make Didipio and its surrounding communities and the province as a whole achieve greater progress in the future,” he added.
Highlights of the celebration were the Miner’s Night, a get-together of all employes and their families from Nueva Vizcaya and neighboring provinces, Battle of the Bands, an original song writing and concert competition, and the Rode Safety for Kids and Safe Motorbike Riding Demo where 20 big bikes were mobilized by Dalton Freewheelers Motorcycle Club for the hands on drill.
“Celebrate Didipio is a year of giving back, a celebration of achievements and progress by both OceanaGold and its various stakeholders, it is also a celebration of growth and progress of Barangay Didipio through Didipio .Development Community Corporation,” Gozar said.
He said Celebrate Didipio was the first “but surely won’t the last. We wish and pray that in the years to come we can have more and more celeb rations filled with fun and music for our employeses and their families — they, for us in OceanaGold Mining, are the real mine,” he added.