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Saturday, December 06, 2003
Maxey: PGMA's master stroke
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
`Transferring the Department of Agriculture Manila office to Mindanao is only one of the steps needed to address the region's myriad problems. It may be one small step for Mindanao, but surely a significant leap for the entire country in these troubled times.'
OF ALL the things that President Arroyo did or said when she was here for the formal opening of the Davao International Airport (DIA) last Monday (Dec. 1), her surprise announcement that the Department of Agriculture national office would be transferred to Davao City received the loudest applause from the hundreds of Dabawenyos in attendance.
And why not? Mindanao is the region acknowledged as the "bread basket" of the country. Blessed with rich soil, a mild climate the whole year round, and situated outside the typhoon belt, Mindanao's vast agricultural land area and seas teeming with marine life have been producing food not only for Mindanaoans but also for the dinner tables of millions of their countrymen in the Visayas and Luzon. If Mindanao were to disappear from the map, the inhabitants of the Visayas and Luzon, regions that are battered by a series of typhoons yearly, would have a problem (spell that with a capital P).
The President's decision to transfer the DA's national office to Davao City is a master stroke by GMA. The benefits from such a transfer will go a long way to the solution of problems that stand in the way of progress in the field of agricultural in the region. Accessibility of the DA main office to Mindanao farmers will save time, money and effort in the solution of their problems.
But even more than the accessibility factor, the transfer of the DA main office from Manila to Mindanao is a big boost to the Mindanao farmers' morale. They will certainly appreciate the President's gesture as one coming from someone who cares for Mindanao and the Mindanaoans' problems. For after all, of the three major regions of the country, whatever are the travails that assail Mindanao, the repercussions are immediately felt in the rest of the country.
A troubled Mindanao--as reflected in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's fight for an independent state; the more than three-decade-long communist insurgency; the proliferation of kidnap-for-ransom gangs as exemplified by the Abu Sayyaf and Pentagon armed groups; the presence of alleged terrorists of the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah variety--will always stand in the way of the country's attaining total success in the areas of peace and order, economic, social and political development.
Transferring the Department of Agriculture Manila office to Mindanao is only one of the steps needed to address the region's myriad problems. It may be one small step for Mindanao, but surely a significant leap for the entire country in these troubled times.
(December 6, 2003 issue)
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