Saturday, May 10, 2008 Ledesma: Idle plains By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
PAGADIAN CITY -- I have been on the road for days now. Something I have to tell my readers is how much progress had been done in terms of bridge and road constructions.
I must say that the highway from Davao to Butuan and all the way to this coastal City has improved dramatically since the much-maligned President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the helms of the government from the Bacchanalian regime of Joseph "Erap" Estrada.
Indeed, you may hate Arroyo for the botched ZTE-NBN deal and the unresolved Jocjoc Bolante caper, but I would venture to say that she has doe more or Mindanao than the accomplishments of Corazon "Cory" Aquino, Fidel Ramos, and Erap combined.
Well, to his credit Ramos did a lot of repair works on the damages wrought by an inept Aquino regime and he succeeded in signing a peace pact with MNLF's Nur Misuari.
Consider this. The road from Compostela Valley province, which for sometime looked like a barrio road, is now completely concreted. The bridges had been upgraded too. That 12-kilometer stretch of soggy road in the approach of Butuan had been replaced with a concrete elevated highway. Repairs on the damaged portions of the more than 30-year old highway from Butuan to Mokas in Lanao del Norte are ongoing. Not bad for a president who had been bashed by the opposition and survey firms without let-up. And I suspect this will go on until 2010.
Her much ballyhooed nautical highway however is over-rated and needs to be revisited. From Mokas it took us exactly one hour and 37 minutes to board a Roro and woe to those behind us in the very long queue of vehicles who must have to wait for their turn for the next available ferry. If that is not enough, what compounds the misery is when you see vehicles of "VIPs" getting preferential treatment. They don't queue like the rest of us hoi pollois who have to endure the delay and the scorching heat of the sun.
But that iniquity can be addressed if the government has the will. Just replace the manager and the police force of the port and maybe open the ro-ro operations to other willing and interested investors. Displaying unoperational vessels does not help. It only clogs the limited berthing place for the functioning ro-ro.
What struck me most in this travel is the vast expanse of idle arable lands that have yet to be cultivated. Even rice fields have yet to be tilled in preparation for planting. I think that the shortage of rice have not sunk in into the consciousness of our farmers yet in many remote barangays not reach by communications.
The other day I read from the papers that the government is inviting tenders for the supply of rice that will be deliverable by September or October. If the government can find means of contracting farmers to plant and deliver by September at a guaranteed price, which they cannot simply ignore, I am certain that this will stir activity from this seemingly eternal lethargy.
But right now the farmers seem to be idly roosting. What concerns me most is that summer this year is short and the rainy season is just around the bend. This should be the right time to plow the fields, clear irrigation canals, prepare rice seedbeds, etcetera, etcetera. There maybe shortage of rice but the early rainy season will mitigate that.
The Department of Agriculture must come out with a strategy to perk up the farmers from dormancy. They should realize that the present atmosphere of crisis offers them a chance for a bonanza. Those idle plains would provide a panorama of golden fields by September and October.
Politicians must put an end to bickering and stage shows and put their acts together to address the crises. Hunger may not stalk them but the hungry might come knocking on their doors one dreary night.
