SUOTA, the Sustainable Obu-Manuvu Tribal Attire project, began on February 23, 2024, in the UP Marilog Land Reservation, located in the Third District of Davao City, within the Obu-Manuvu Ancestral Domain. Some 30 Obu-Manuvu women and men were trained in beads-making. Beads are a feature of their culture, being a component of the tribal attire. Beads are part of traditional apparel and are also extended to be part of headgear and worn to adorn hands and feet. A beads-making expert from the tribe will lead the training session at the UP Mindanao Training Center, Marilog, Davao City. The training will help ensure that this indigenous custom is not lost but can live on with a new generation of skilled creators. 

This effort, initiated in part by the UP Mindanao Land Reservations Management Office, addresses various Sustainable Development Goals on quality education through women empowerment, gender equality through women’s employment, and decent work and economic growth through economic productivity. 

UP Mindanao’s role in the Marilog Land Reservation is  defined  in Presidential Proclamation 1253, signed by President Fidel V. Ramos on June 15, 1998, “for research, extension, instruction purposes, watershed and forest rehabilitation and protection, biodiversity (flora and fauna) conservation, crops and livestock production, and management, including upland communities training and development center of the University of the Philippines.”