ELECTED local government officials are four months into their current terms and their capability as leaders could already be partly assessed based on the initial outburst in performance. I used the term “initial” because we don’t really know what will happen later, whether the outburst is but a mere brush fire, or “ningas cogon” if you will or is a lasting one, lowering only a bit in intensity throughout the official’s term.
Much of the focus by officials so far has been on the easily observable, meaning in the lowlands or their jurisdiction’s centers. For Mayor Edgardo Labella, the Carbon market has become a model for the effort to put order in what has long been an anarchic setup in Cebu City. I still have to hear of anything done in the uplands and the periphery where farmers mostly reside.
I consider the Cebu City farmers as family and am familiar with their needs. What is unique in the uplands of the city is not only the terrain largely devoid of forest cover but also their geographical position being part of Central Visayas’ main urban center. The city’s uplands can’t therefore be your typical rural enclave. On this, three aspects stand out.
One, it would be wrong to consider agriculture in the city’s mountain areas as ordinary. The slopes are steep and mostly barren, with grasses and bushes the only outgrowth that are preventing all of the soil from being carried by rainwater to the lowlands. Slash-and-burn is the preferred method of farming but is not doing the farmers any good. And farming is much too dependent on rain, with irrigation virtually nonexistent.
But the city’s farmers have one ace up their sleeves: the mango trees planted by their ancestors almost everywhere in the upland barangays. The popular Guadalupe mangoes are not the produce of Barangay Guadalupe, which is an urban barangay, but are the fruits of the Cebu farmers’ collective sweat. It is just unfortunate that the government is looking the other way instead of propping up Cebu’s mango industry.
Two, the city’s upland areas have a big tourism potential that just hasn’t been tapped. City officials only need to conduct an inventory of the natural resources that can be developed into tourist destinations and they will surely be amazed. I have seen glimpses of that in those times I frequented Mt. Manunggal using the city’s uplands as gateways.
Three, some Cebu City mountain barangays are rich in history. Here, Sudlon and Tabunan should take the lead. Sudlon, aside from being picturesque being in a plateau, had its share of Katipuneros under the Spaniards and guerillas during World War II. Tabunan was the legendary base of Cebuano guerrillas under the so-called Cebu Area Command led by James Cushing. Those storylines should make a visit to the city’s mountain barangays both recreational and educational.
I understand the focus of the local government officials’ initial outburst. I just hope they will expand their horizons in the coming days. I am sure the farmers are expecting them to do so sooner rather than later.