Thursday, September 11, 2008 So: Oh my goat By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
AN afternoon trip to the mountain barangay of Taptap in Cebu City made Sun.Star Cebu chief photographer realize that a goat has a more prolific sex life than he has.
With a penchant for things agricultural, Alex wanted to know what it takes to breed goats. First, you need goats, he was told by the man who showed him around an empty goat dispersal house.
Second, you need 10 female goats, called does, and one male goat, Alex was told further. The goats are hybrid but definitely not the kind that relieves itself with gold coins like Goot Da Wanderpol. Goot was a breed of its own and preferred Teban and Goliat to goats male or female.
I am not privy to the sexual preferences of a goat (and of Alex’s as well) but with 10 does making themselves available to him (the goat, not Alex), it doesn’t take long for him to be siring as many kids as his goat manhood can handle.
This hasn’t been the case of the goat dispersal program supposedly undertaken by Guadalupe Barangay Captain Jingjing Faelnar using money disbursed from Rep. Antonio Cuenco’s congressional funds.
The goat dispersal house, a 40 feet by 40 feet structure, can accommodate 100 goats, but there are no goats to disperse, milk or keep the caretaker busy.
Why the goat house is built in Taptap, a barangay that doesn’t belong to Cuenco’s congressional district, is fodder for suspicion and idle talk. Why the goats aren’t there three years after the P15 million was released is also fodder for suspicion and idle talk.
Cuenco, who until yesterday had not been read about in the local papers or heard on local radio for some weeks now, wants an accounting of the P15 million that he thought was intended for seedlings distribution and goat dispersal.
The Faelnar camp said that the seedlings project has been carried out and has used up some P6 million. A balance of P9 million remains unspent because Faelnar wanted to be prudent in buying the goats and to observe government procedures.
A goat dispersal project is not novel for the Cebu City Government. In 2004, the city agriculture department (CAD) launched this project and turned over 67 Anglo Nubian goats to selected farmers from Barangays Lusaran, Cambinocot, Adlaon, Tagbao and Sudlon.
An Anglo Nubian is dairy goat breed that is suited to hot conditions like the Philippines. It’s an all-purpose goat and used to produce meat, milk and hide. It can breed every four months.
Four years ago, an Anglo Nubian cost P6,000 and the City Government spent P395,000 to buy the hybrid goats, according to an article posted on www.cebucity. gov.ph.
The website does not say how this particular goat dispersal project fared but Faelnar can use this as basis for his version if he indeed is serious and intent to carry out the project. Three years is a long time to wait for a goat of Goot’s kind to come along.
As far as Cuenco knows, the project has not taken off in Barangay Guadalupe. The congressman, who likes to call the attention of the public by raising suspicions on things that he could have inquired about first from the concerned party before announcing it to the media, says he will have the matter investigated. Ahay. Another waste of people’s money.
As for Alex, he is now googling whether a goat’s eye really works.
