A RETIRED lady public servant who have been a consistent agricultural worker and community development leader received the prestigious Outstanding Ilongga award during the recently held Semana sang Iloilo celebration on April 11.
Dr. Velma Sanceda-Encanto retired in 2005 as regional agriculture communications officer in the Department of Agriculture Western Visayas region after serving the agriculture department for 42 years.
But her retirement did not stop her from helping the women homemakers in Barangay Botong, Oton, Iloilo where she mobilized a cutflower industry in the municipality thereby adding color to the annual Katagman Festival of the town.
By Saturday, April 30, 2016, she will receive another honor as an Outstanding Ogtonganon Award for her efforts in helping the municipality.
Claiming a busy life after retirement, Encanto who is a grandmother of six, organized in 2012 the Botong Rural Improvement Club (RIC) and initiated street beautification program of the town center and its plaza. She also started a Green Day program and inspired club members to plant their signature plants like malunggay, papaya and lemon grass.
The Green Day concept was picked up by the national RIC and thru a legislation, was declared a national project through a legislative resolution spearheaded by Congresswoman Lilia Nuno of Zamboanga during the 16th Congress.
In 2012, she was elected municipal RIC president and subsequently, the regional RIC president and became a member of the national RIC Board of Director.
She was active in several organizations as she offered her time and knowledge being an officer of the Oton PTA Assembly of the Immaculate Concepcion Parochial School,
Her other socio-civic activities after her retirement was being an officer of the Oton PTA Assembly of the Immaculate Conception Parochial School, member of the Municipal Development Council, representative to the Civil Society Group of Oton National High School, member of the Board of Director of the Southern Iloilo Area Marketing Cooperative (SIAMCI).
Encanto was credited by the cooperative for her contribution in winning the Regional Gawad Saka Award in 2013 to 2014 and the Villar Sipag Award in 2013.
She is the first to initiate the Katagman Garden Show and participated in Iloilo Garden Show during the Kaadlawan sang Iloilo celebration. She also exposed RIC members to trips in herbal and medicinal farms.
Encanto has a Masteral degree in agriculture and Doctorate degree in Rural Development.
She has a vast experience as a rural broadcaster for 39 years and chief of the regional information division of the DA-Western Visayas where she championed the “School on the Air” early morning radio program and the information caravan on technology transfer to different towns and farming areas in the region.
In 1997, she garnered the National DA Gawad Saka Award and a Professional Media Award for Broadcast Category by the Philippine Council of Agriculture Resources and Research Development (PCARRD). She became regional coordinator of the Western Visayas Agriculture Resources and Research Development Council (WESVARRDEC) which is composed of 26 agencies.
She is also a BINHI awardee given by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc. and has continued to help thousands of farmers needing agricultural information.
In all her endeavor though, her husband Andres, who is also an agriculturist and a retired municipal agriculture officer (MAO) of Oton, is her constant partner and support.