Monday, July 10, 2006
God's Providence
By Aquiles Zonio
PALIMBANG, Sultan Kudarat -- Two years ago, the Diocese of Marbel, some 206 kilometers away from here, sent Fr. Greto Bugas to handle Our lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Milbuk, a remote farming and fishing village.
It was his first time to handle a parish. His first 13 years was spent in the Diocese handling Christian Formation Centers.
Despite the odds and challenges, Bugas managed to live up to his name. Call it a coincidence--his name has even given profound meaning and relevance to his advocacy for food sustainability in the area.
He became God's instrument in liberating Palimbang farmers from the bondage of poverty and neglect.
Bugas is a Visayan term for rice.
Neglected, leaderless...
When Bugas arrived in Milbuk two years ago, he was deeply saddened by what he saw.
Before him was a wide, revolting sight of people's sufferings. In his 13 years as diocesan priest, he has never seen a place as neglected as this.
The town, needless to say, is in bad shape. Residents are not only living in abject poverty, they are leaderless.
Some, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, claimed they hardly see Mayor Labualas Mamansual in the town.
They would consider themselves lucky if Mamansual, a former commander of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the area, could visit Palimbang once a month.
He is an absentee mayor whose shadow they could saw at the Palimbang municipal hall except when there's kidnapping or Abu Sayyaf landing.
He holds office in his residence at Camias Street in the boom city of General Santos, some 150 kilometers south of this poverty-stricken and strife-torn town.
This was, however, denied by the mayor. He claimed he's doing everything to make his town peaceful and progressive.
Blessed...
From the land, mountain to the sea, Palimbang is blessed with both beauty and bounty.
The great irony, resources are aplenty but there's a scarcity of government support, care and services.
The town lags behind compared to other places receiving a much lesser internal revenue allotment (IRA).
Palimbang, despite its P51 million annual IRA, is far behind when compared to nearby Maitum town in Sarangani, which only receives a P39 million annual IRA from the national government.
Aside from its barely accessible road condition, there is no electricity, potable water system, including telephone line or cellular site.
There's no hospital, only health centers without medicine or health workers. All these are telltale signs of inefficient and wretched governance.
Palimbang is in the lap of the gods. There, you'll feel as if there's no existing government.
Disorganized, powerless...
Stark realities afflicting the farmers are too obvious to be ignored. They are impoverished, disorganized, tied up to debt and powerless.
Most of them are small landowners tilling two-hectare or less rice lands.
First thing Fr. Bugas did was to activate the social action center (SAC) of Milbuk Parish.
He then coordinated with the SAC in the Diocese of Marbel to establish link with non-government organization involved in helping peasant sector.
He was introduced to Valeriano Santillan, a farm technician and provincial chair of Magsasaka at Siyentipiko sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (Masipag) in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.
Masipag is a farmer-scientist partnership that promotes genuine development of farmers through a pro-poor, sustainable approach.
The first training on organic farming was held in February 2004, with only 29 farmers in attendance from nearby farming villages of Milbuk, Kanipaan and San Roque.
Of 29 participants, only nine practiced what they learned. He said, at first, farmers failed to grasp the value of organic farming.
But the priest was determined. He initiated the conduct of a baseline survey. Result showed that environment and expenses-wise, recent farming practices are more destructive and expensive compared to organic.
Eye-opener...
Bugas organized the Association of Sustainable Agriculture Practitioners of Palimbang (ASAPP), a core group of farmers practicing and propagating organic farming in the area.
ASAPP led by Ad Hoc chair Leonardo Ganotice, 49, has now a total members of 200 farmers in 15 out of 42 barangays in Palimbang.
Meldrecita Bayudan now claims expenses on farm inputs, labor and land preparation drastically have dropped from P15,000 to P2,480 per cropping on her 1.74-hectare farm since she started adopting organic farming.
She added conventional and organic farming techniques have almost the same yield. But by going organic she was able to save more money, time and effort.
Bayudan said she took over cultivating their farm after her husband suffered a stroke four years ago. Thanks to organic farming, it eased up her work loads and burden.
Ganotice, a 20-year conventional farmer, said he used to spend P30,000 to P40,000 per cropping for his five-hectare farm. When he started adopting organic, he just spent about P10,000.
"For seeds alone, I used to spend P19,200 to buy 16 bags of 15-kilo hi-breed rice seed. In organic farming, I was able to save because seeds were given free," Ganotice said.
Half of his five-hectare farm yielded 169 cavans. All these were delivered to the financier to pay debts amounting to more than P100,000.
"Baon ako sa utang pero I'm confident I would be able to pay them in due time. Ang mahalaga, hindi bugbog yong katawan ko sa trabaho at kemikal," Ganotice, an electrical engineering graduate, said.
Unifying factor...
Organic farming has not just improved the lot of farmers in Palimbang. It also became a unifying factor for Christians and Muslims.
At present, the coop has two Muslim members -- Ishmael Pasaporte and Harry Mulod -- who adopted the organic farming scheme.
The two are active in all coop activities particularly in convincing other farmers to shift to organic farming.
Mulod said by joining the coop his eyes were opened to the utmost importance of unity in achieving their goal.
"We were oriented on how to focus in our commonalities not in our differences as Christians and Muslims. Organic farming helped bridge the gap created by wars and cultural differences," Mulod said in the vernacular.
Reviving Bayanihan spirit...
The coop members practicing organic farming revived that long-cherished yet vanishing Bayanihan spirit to make work in the field easier and exciting.
During the bayanihan, about 30 coop members can be seen working in the field.
Manobo farmer Ronald Sianda, 35, of Barongis village said "Human sa tingtanom ug pagtangtang sa sagbot, pa-bandying-bandying na mi. Duna miy higayon mangita'g laing panginabuhian."
Sianda had been practicing conventional farming for 11 years before deciding to go organic.
Zero chemical...
Santillan said by doing away with chemicals the farmers are protecting nature and all living organisms in the soil.
Though organic farming is still on its trial stage, many farmers are already upbeat about it.
Out of more than 10,000-hectare lands conducive for rice growing in Palimbang, so far only 50 hectares have been utilized for organic farming.
These trial farms would serve as seed bank where indigenous rice varieties would be tested and propagated.
The coop has already discovered 15 to 20 new indigenous rice varieties.
They will continue to conduct tests to determine which varieties are best suited for the type of soil in Palimbang.
By doing this, Santillan said, they can develop highly-resistant varieties while at the same time maximize rice production in the area.
The income of traders engaged in selling fertilizers and pesticides in the area were affected but they were happy farmers have found a way to pay their long-overdue accounts.
Empowerment through evangelization...
Bugas is a man with a mission -- to educate Palimbang residents about the importance of food sustainability and protecting its main source, the Mother Nature, too often destroyed because of man's greed and ignorance.
His inspiring work -- rallying small farmers to go back to organic farming - is the ultimate teaching tool.
His was a never-ending labor of love for nature and people he vowed to serve.
And he is not alone. He has the backing of his fellow priests and the bishop.
In a rare show of force and support, Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of the Diocese of Marbel and 12 priests from various parishes showed up in Milbuk Parish during the June 26 Patronal Fiesta.
Fr. Angel Buenavides, station director of Catholic-run radio station and current local KBP chair, brought along members of the tri-media to give mileage to what is going on in Palimbang.
Bugas knew that sustaining what he had started is a gargantuan and daunting task. He could not be with Palimbang farmers forever.
He wants them to become self-reliant. Even the officers running the cooperative are on interim status. "Let the process produces a natural leader. Time will come when a real leader will surface," he said.
For Bisaya stories from General Santos.Click here. (This section is updated every Monday)
(July 10, 2006 issue)
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