COMPOSTELA VALLEY JOINS KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL WITH SOLIDARITY RING EXHIBIT

ComVal’s Solidarity Ring
joins Kadayawan Festival

The now-famous Solidarity Ring, the symbol of Compostela Valley’s political unity, is joining Davao City’s Kadayawan Festival in a public display at the Museu Dabawenyo.
The 1.5-kilogram gold-and-silver toned ring---the biggest in the country---temporarily leaves its home at the lobby of the ComVal provincial capitol for viewing from August 1 to 24.
This is our contribution to the Kadayawan Festival, said Governor Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy. Dabawenyos would be seeing the real thing this time after a replica drew large crowd when exhibited at the ComVal booth at the August 8-10 3rd Mindanao Travel and Tour Expo in SM-Davao. Worth about P1.5 million, the Solidarity Ring would be brought to Davao City under tight security to deter adventurists planning a heist.
We are fully supporting the Kadayawan and the public appearance in Davao City of the Solidarity Ring is our province’s show of symbolic support for Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and the Dabawenyos, said Gov. Uy.
Gov. Uy himself would lead the opening of the Solidarity Ring exhibition, its first outside of ComVal. The ring has become a tourist attraction at the capitol in Cabidianan, four kms from Nabunturan, the capital of ComVal.
The Solidarity Ring---unveiled during the First Bulawan Festival in March this year---was the idea of Gov. Uy, as the dust of the 2007 political battle---one of the most violent in the province’s history---settled down, as a symbol of political unity in the province.
The idea was lapped up by Comvalenos, politicians, businessmen, ordinary people, and including smallscale miners in gold-rich Mt. Diwata in Monkayo, who chipped in a gram or two of gold and silver.
Conspicuously displayed at the capitol lobby, the 18-karat two-toned ring with an interior diameter of 5 inches and exterior diameter of 6 inches, made up of 1.18 kilograms of gold of shining finish and 308 grams of 99.9 percent pure silver of diamond finish and weighing 1.488 kilograms, the Solidarity Ring has already accomplished its mission of solidifying ComVal politics.
Last month, the who-is-who in the province’s political landscape---from political kingpin retired Congressman Prospero Amatong to the barangay captains attended the Lakas-CMD assembly where Gov. Uy was elected as provincial party chairman.
And the ring may bring in international attention to the province in the country with the richest gold deposit: the province is now going through the motion of the Solidarity Ring landing in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest and heaviest gold ring.


While symbolic of political unity, the Solidarity Ring also shines as the centerpiece of the province’s biggest asset: gold deposits that changed the lives of the Comvalenos since the precious metal was discovered in the province in the 80s.
The Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences, Minerals News Service in Region XI in a 1998 report said Compostela Valley has gold deposits of 36, 328,699 metric tons of gold, one of the biggest in the world. The largest deposit of 17 million metric tons is found in the municipality of Mabini followed by New Bataan’s 15,594,689 metric tons. In comparison Monkayo, that hosts the Mt. Diwata (Diwalwal) goldfields, has a deposit of only 670,000 metric tons.
In 1997, a technical report of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) cited the strategic economic value of the gold ore at Mt. Diwalwal as easily accessible and with gold concentration of from 25 up to 100 grams per ton, about 25-50 times more than the famous gold ore from the Witwatersrand Basin in the Republic of South Africa.
The Solidarity Ring-- crafted by the husband-and-wife team of Joel and Frellie of GlitterWorks Jewellery at Gaisano Mall in Davao City, also has inspired Gov. Uy to push jewelry making as a major livelihood project in the province. Only recently, the Provincial Board tackled a Memorandum of Agreement between the provincial government and the municipality of Monkayo headed by Mayor Manuel Brillantes Jr. on the Jewelry-Making Training Center that would be built in Monkayo.
Gov. Uy earlier had issued Executive Order No. 3 that would promote jewelry-making as a major industry and make ComVal as the Jewelry Industry Capital of the Philippines. Tapped to help the industry are the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI),
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST); and the Diwalwal Artisan Entrepreneurs Cooperative (Darteco) and Compostela Valley Jewelry Makers Association.