ON SOME occasions, I create images of people in my mind and hold onto it. Some will soon live up to the image I had of them. I am grateful.
On other occasions, a person’s persuasive characteristics like attractiveness, easy confidence, wit and charm, seduces me.
The seduction even comes easy when a person exudes energy, sincerity and fidelity congruent with the self-image an individual should have and look like to be beside me. I imagine and hope that would be a glorious time and life, a present reality stretching long after that.
Imagining could be some pastime, for a dreamer, but the sober truth soon overtakes me when time has passed and I contemplate the events and times that unfolded in a place along with its characters. It is often less flattering than my notes in those moments would have me believe.
A case in point was when the Highland Agricultural Development Project (HADP) was being conceptualized and discussed during meetings done at the Benguet State University (BSU) based Highland Agricultural Research Center (HARC), some three decades ago. The HARC was the forerunner of the Highland Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Development Consortium (HARRDEC).
In those early days, I saw myself excited, listening to those planners deliberating about big projects and programs under the Integrated Area Development Plans (IADP) of government during the Marcos years. The excitement had my imaginations thinking about some form of a Marshall Plan, the unprecedented policy though which America helped rebuild World War ll ravaged Western Europe, taking shape to promote rural development in the Cordillera highlands.
I think about those years and times again, as I sat watching the proceedings of the 8th Annual Country Programme Review (Acpor) of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) assisted projects in the Philippines by IFAD officials with the managers of these projects.
Over time and in partnership with the Philippines, IFAD has supported the implementation of 15 Projects with a total project cost of US dollars 752.90 million. Of this total, IFAD financing is US dollars 244.40 million, directly benefitting 1,749,307 household. These partnerships provide not only hope, as development interventions but were also pursued as rescue efforts for those desperately needful of the support as well.
IFAD’s engagement in the Cordillera started in the late 1980’s, as a co-financing institution with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), for the implementation of the HADP in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province. As it turned out, the HADP was implemented only in the Province of Benguet and Mountain Province for a period of seven years.
The media during the early years of the HADP would have us think, the project was a failure, which it was. Three years after its completion, the ADB rated the project a success, and IFAD, for its part, returned and stayed as main financing institution for the implementation of the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management (CHARM) Project, and the expanded Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management Project of CHARMP2.
The CHARMP2 has completed its 7-year tour of duty last December 30, 2015 but extended for another year (2016). The Project’s life may yet last until 2018, with the submission and final approval of the scaled up plan by the region to allow more unreached and undeveloped communities in the Cordillera interior to benefit from the Project. Vertically, the proposed extension would support and ensure the sustainability of lessons learned and best practices and other development gains from the implementation of the CHARM and CHARMP2 projects.
In terms of magnitude and time, the initial excitement for a Marshall Plan for the Cordillera through HADP has turned into its sobering reality now. It is to me a great plan still, having the elements that American architect and builder Daniel Hudson Burnham would include in his list as having “magic that stir men’s blood” and therefore invites continuing commitment, dedication and action through the end. Imagine this development aid administered, like medicine bit by bit, to recovering patient for 30 plus years. It sure made us better, compared to our situations then.
My gratitude to IFAD Asia Programme Manager Benoit Thiery; IFAD Philippines Country Programme Officer, Yolando Arban; DA Undersecretary, Atty. Emerson U. Palad; DA-RFO-CAR Regional Executive Director Lorenzo M. Caranguian, and, CHARMP2 Project Cameron Odsey for the charmed rural development events and moments that unfurled last week.
DA Secretary Proceso J. Alcala’s visit to the region last January 28, 2016 also made the events more meaningful and fulfilling.
To one and all at DA-RFO-CAR, CHARMP2, IFAD assisted projects in the Philippines, our LGU partners, cheers! What a wonderful world we have with all of you around.