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2 hurt in Ecija bets’ followers noon gunfight
BY LIAM ANACLETO

JAEN, Nueva, Ecija – Followers of two opposing political camps clashed here over alleged charges of “vote buying” that triggered a gunfight that left two persons wounded.

Two high-powered firearms and P600,000 allegedly intended to be used for vote buying were confiscated as a result.

Shooting occurred 1 p.m. on May 14 in the farmhouse of the 4th district candidate for representative, Gay Padiernos, in Barangay Lambakin here.

Injured and treated in a hospital were Benedicto Quisoy y Yuarata, 34, married, of Barangay Langla, and his companion, Emiliano Gajasan y Isidro, 25, married, of Barangay Malaiba, both of this town.

The police said Quisoy was a driver of 4th district reelectionist Rep. Rodolfo W. Antonino, who is running under the banner of the Kampi-Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecija coalition.

Quisoy suffered bullet wound in the left leg, while Gajasan suffered fractured a right knee. They were confined in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cabanatuan City .

Meanwhile, officer-in-charge of the Nueva Ecija police officer, Senior Supt. Alfredo Caballes, ordered an investigation of the incident, saying no government security agent is involved in the incident.

Police report said Quisoy and his companion passed by the compound of Padiernos’s farmhouse where there were several persons milling around.


Troops kill NPAs in P’sinan firefight
BY MYDS SUPNAD

MANGATAREM, Pangasinan — Government forces frustrated the attempt of New People’s Army rebels to set up camp in a remote village here, leaving a still undetermined number of rebels killed and wounded in a firefight early Thursday.

Provincial police director Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez said residents earlier reported some 30 NPA rebels were spotted setting up camp in sitio Lopez, Barangay Calombuyan Sur.
A combined raiding team of police and Army units later surprised the rebels, leaving a number of them killed and wounded, Nerez said.

The rebels were able to escape, dragging the bodies of their killed comrades and their wounded, according to Army Lieutenants Ali Sumangil and Victor Kitong who led the troops from the 7th Infantry Battalion.

They said the rebels fled the bloodied site, leaving behind an M-16 rifle, grenade launchers, ammunition and a bag of propaganda materials.

In a related development on elections in the Cordillera, regional police based in Camp Dangwa , Benguet said NPA rebels have upped their activities recruiting members of their group in campaign sites.

But while there were some incidents of ballot snatching, there were no persons killed while they were casting their votes.

Police said there were 13 validated cases of election related violent incidents which solely happened in Abra resulting to the death of 2 persons namely: Eddie Tadeo, Gil borreta, and wounding of 10 others.

Other killings were attributed to cases of criminality not election-related.


Comelec ruling ousting N. Vizcaya governor not final
BY JOAN CAPUNA

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – President Arroyo’s election lawyer said here a recent Commission on Elections resolution unseating Gov. Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma is not yet final and executory.

This, as Cuaresma, who is seeking a second term under the opposition Nacionalista Party-backed Abante Nueva Vizcaya, declared she is still the legitimate governor of the province, and that no vacancy exists as far as the governorship is concerned despite a ruling issued by the Comelec en banc on May 10.

Cuaresma’s lead counsel, lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who is also President Arroyo’s election lawyer, said the poll’s body resolution is not implementable in a period of 30 days or on June 9.
This would give Cuaresma’s lawyer enough time to file a motion questioning the poll body’s decision on Certiorari.

“The en-banc majority resolution has been rendered moot and academic with only one day left before the elections. Thus, Governor Cuaresma’s proclamation can no longer be altered because the resolution can become final and executory only after 30 days,” he said.

Macalintal’s argument was shared by former regional trial court executive Judge Jose Rosales, now dean of the College of Law of the Catholic Church-run Saint Mary’s University here, who said the en-banc resolution is not yet final and executory, as such, Cuaresma remains governor of the province until the Supreme Court says otherwise.

Likewise, lawyer Catherine Allas, provincial election officer, said the resolution can still be appealed by filing a motion for certiorari with the High Court.

“I want to say it again, I won clean during the last elections and I intend to finish my term until June 30because I know that with my proven track record, I will be starting a new term on July 1,” said Cuaresma.

She made the statement in an apparent move to clear confusion among residents on who is the governor of the province following last Thursday’s issuance of the 14-page resolution by the poll body which upheld the first division resolution nullifying her proclamation as elected governor in the 2004 elections.

The Comelec resolution also declared the governorship post vacant because her declared rival, former board member Leonardo Perez Jr., died early this year.

“I know that the people will vindicate me in this election. We will finish our term until June 30, so we can start a new term on July 1,” said the lady governor.

Macalintal said Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason’s dissenting opinion on the resolution would fortify Cuaresma’s hold on the governorship when he will file a motion to contest the Comelec en banc resolution before the Supreme Court.

In his dissenting opinion, Tuason said: “When the records containing the contested ballots were forwarded, meticulous examination of all the records and appreciation of the ballots were done just to unearth the truth and determine the real choice of the voters in Nueva Vizcaya, such a tedious process yielded a different result from that of the First Division. My examination confirmed the results as declared by the Provincial Board of Canvassers of Nueva Vizcaya that (Cuaresma) hurdled the plurality of votes and thus the duly elected governor.”


Cayetano ‘unwanted’ in P’sinan town; gets zero
BY JENNELYN MONDEJAR

STO. TOMAS, Pangasinan – Every election time, this quiet town and its voters become instant celebrities as the media’s attention is focused on them for giving zero votes to “unwanted” candidates.

Data gathered by newsmen at press time showed Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano got zero votes here.

Cayetano, who has hurled accusations against First Gentlemen Miguel Arroyo and the First Family, seemed to have failed in wooing even a single voter here, according to re-elected Mayor Vivien Villar.

Earlier this year, Mr. Arroyo had a shouting match with Cayetano in an expulsion case which the First Gentleman had filed against the Taguig-Pateros congressman for his alleged false claims on the multimillion-dollar German bank accounts which the Arroyos supposedly had.

Villar said, “That’s the result, we cannot do anything. The people here don’t like him.”

Villar and her entire slate – councilor Dick Villar, her running mate, and the eight candidates for councilor – were all unopposed. That’s another record in Pangasinan politics, possible only in this town.

Villar said they campaigned vigorously for 12-0 for the administration’s Team Unity. But the official and complete results were: Edgardo Angara (3,580 votes), Manny Villar (3,539), Loren Legarda (3,466), Francis Escudero (3,415), Vicente Sotto III (3,334), Joker Arroyo (3,257), Ralph Recto (3,058), Miguel Zubiri (2,949), Michael Defensor (2,897), Panfilo Lacson (2,864), Francis Pangilinan (2,460), and Prospero Pichay (2,317).

Angara, Sotto, Arroyo, Recto, Zubiri, Defensor, and Pichay belong to Team Unity, and Villar, Legarda, Escudero, and Lacson, the Genuine Opposition. Pangilinan ran as an independent.
In the 2004 presidential elections, the rivals of President Arroyo also got zero votes in this town.
When Corazon Aquino also ran for president, she got zero votes here.

Villar’s husband, Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr., said the local poll results elated him.

“I dedicate that to my good friend, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo,” said Villar, who had served as Sto. Tomas mayor for more than 20 years, always running unopposed, except in just one election.

His wife, who has also been running consistently unopposed, got 5,172 votes, while her vice mayor garnered 5,146. Each of their councilor bets got nearly 5,000 votes.


Cebu Pacific offers P1 seats for travelers

Cebu Pacific, the country’s low fare leader and leading domestic carrier, offers P1 one-way seats for all of its domestic destinations.

The seat sale will run from May 17 to 22, or until seats are sold out and is good for travel from July 15 to December 15, 2007.

CEB has allocated more than 40,000 seats for this P1 seat sale. The P1 one-way fare is exclusive of applicable taxes and surcharges.

“We’ve been getting a very warm response to our ongoing regional seat sale and we feel that we should also invigorate domestic travel for this period. We hope that many will take advantage of the very low fare offering and travel no matter what the season may be,” Candice Iyog, VP for marketing and product announced.

Iyog added the best way to purchase sale tickets is thru CEB’s website (cebupacificair.com) where passengers can view the travel dates, flight schedules, and fare options available on each flight.

“We encourage the public to act fast and purchase their seats early because seats will surely sell-out fast,” Iyog emphasized.

Now in its 12th year, CEB operates the most domestic destinations, flights and routes and has the youngest fleet in the Philippines at just one year.

CEB operates 14 brand new Airbus aircraft to its 20 domestic and soon to be 8 regional destinations with the addition of Taipei beginning June 13, 2007.



Failure of elections mulled in remote Mt Province town

PARACELIS, Mountain Province -- A failure of elections may be declared in a village here after an unidentified group grabbed all election paraphernalia in one precinct.

In Baguio City , Commission on Elections Regional Director Armando Velasco said the final decision would come from the Comelec central office.

At noon on May 15, an unidentified group reportedly snatched all election paraphernalia from precinct 33A in barangay Buringal, Paracelis. “It is not only the ballots that were snatched but all the election paraphernalia.”

The area has 237 registered voters. If the figure would affect the results, Velasco said special elections would be held simultaneous with the national conduct of special elections in other places.

Aside from Mt. Province , two incidents of ballot snatching were also reported in the towns of Dolores and Tineg in Abra.

According to regional police director Chief Supt. Raul Gonzales, this has not affected the counting of votes since the ballot boxes were returned.

Meanwhile, Benito Tumamao, regional director of the Department of Education, said teachers who served as board of election inspectors, have properly manned the election despite their minimal number.

Around 10,000 teachers were deployed on May 14 in varies precincts. The ideal number of BEIs serving should have been 15,000

Tumamao said the DepEd also tapped the services of Civil Service employees in the election.


2 wounded cops cited after encounter with armed group

CAMP DANGWA, Benguet - Two cops based at the Abra provincial police office who were wounded in action during an encounter with a private armed group in Lagayan, Abra on May 13 were decorated in simple rites here on May 16.

Chief Supt. Raul Gonzales, regional police director said PO1 Lauro Gracia Robino and JPO1 Edgar Alcantara Bolante were among those ambushed by a still undetermined number of armed men while transporting ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia to several polling centers from Poblacion, Lagayan, around 6 p.m. that day.

Both were conferred the PNP Wounded Personnel Medal or Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting and cash incentives at the Regional Health Service Office.

It was earlier reported the two policemen along with Margie Labanen, a board of election inspector assigned to the Colago Elementary School; Candida Sulian, a BEI assigned to the Baybayatin Elementary School; and Ronabel Alinday, a National Movement for Free Elections volunteer; were ambushed on board a public utility jeepney bearing license plate number AYG-340 while transporting ballot boxes from Poblacion, Lagayan to different polling precincts.

This resulted to the wounding of all five victims.

Pursuit was conducted by a reinforcement team composed of the 1601st Provincial Police Mobile Group of Abra, the PNJP Special Action Force and the 41st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, while a team from the San Juan Municipal Police Station established a blocking position at Quidaoen, San Juan , Abra.

All injured persons were evacuated later to the Abra Provincial Hospital in Bangued for medical treatment.


Obet brod, 5 others jailed for illegal guns

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – A brother of Bulacan gubernatorial candidate Roberto “Obet” Pagdanganan and five companions including two policemen, who were caught with firearms night on May 13 were moved from the police headquarters in Malolos City to the provincial jail on Tuesday.

Supt. Feliza Manaig, Bulacan police information officer said Hermenegildo Pagdanganan, 50, barangay chief of Sto. Nino, Calumpit town, and the five others were charged with violation of the Omnibus Election Code.

Pagdanganan’s group was on board two pick-up trucks and had reportedly confronted a barangay chairman whom Pagdanganan had hit with the butt of a rifle.

Due to this, the group was held at a checkpoint, yielding a baby Armalite, a 9-mm pistol, two 12-gauge shotguns, three .45 caliber pistols, and assorted bullets.



Mining investors coming in trickles to Philippines
BY DEXTER A. SEE

BAGUIO CITY – Mining investments in the country have been coming only in trickles since the passage of the controversial Mining Act of 1994 that was initially thought to make a difference in reducing mass poverty in rural communities.

This was disclosed in a study commissioned by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry to determine the readiness of the country’s mining industry in absorbing trade liberalization.

The report concluded that the "ghost of irresponsible mining" continues to haunt one of the most competitive segments of the economy, citing man-made tragedies caused by negligent operators, like Marcopper, whose solid and liquid wastes wreaked havoc in the communities that hosted them.

The Philippine Export News and Features stated the gold curse seem to have haunted the country since the most of the people remained dirt poor even when the mining boom was at its height in the 1980s when gold hit an all-time high price of 0 per ounce.

The PNF noted the study stated the country remains one of the richest in the world not only with precious metal reserves like gold, silver, nickel and copper but also with non-metallic raw materials such as silica for glass manufacturing and limestone for cement making.

However, only a few gold, copper and nickel mines have started actual mining operations since the collapse of the industries when all companies, except Philex and Lepanto mines, closed shop.

The study also stated that locally produced cement is costlier in the country than anywhere in the Asian region due to a cartel that fixes high prices while only some glass factories are in place. These include Asahi.



Keeping the Baguio convention Center in city’s hands in peril
by Isagani S. Liporada

BAGUIO CITY – It made city officials skip a beat in chorus late last year and gave sleepless nights to a handful of employees who consider Baguio Convention Center a throttlehold.

Worst, it placed the city’s capacity to honor the sanctity of a contract it entered into with its creditor in the spotlight.

The city now owes P117,689,841.40 in amortizations due to the Government Service Insurance System as of Jan. 5. And May 11, the D-day of the GSIS final demand to vacate the Baguio Convention Center , has already come and gone.

To date, not a single centavo moved a bit nor an ingenious plan approved if only to firm up the city’s stake over BCC.

These, while the Bases Conversion Development Authority plays the role of an apathetic debtor vis-à-vis the city’s Camp John Hay lease shares that could easily have covered the entire Baguio debt to GSIS.

Realizing time may soon run out, acting mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Jr. in a May 15 letter to the Sangguniang Panlungsod once again pleaded approval of “the only option” to salvage BCC - extend P35M in partial payment to GSIS as a show of ‘goodwill’.”

Bautista said, “We are now in the evening of our present terms, I humbly ask, even for the only remaining time we have as members of the 2004 body of elected officials, to do this one last act of uniting to save our stake over BCC.”

Bautista revealed he agreed to an earlier observation by some SP members that compel BCDA should be compelled to honor their end of the bargain a propos their signed January 23, 2004 chore to remit the city’s annual 25-percent share in the CJH lease payments to GSIS for the next 7-years.

However, he emphasized that the sanctity of the February 18, 2003 BCC buy contract between the city and GSIS “takes precedence and should be given respect to safeguard the city’s good name.”

He averred, “I agree [with councilor Edilberto Tenefrancia’s observation] that advancing P35M as ‘goodwill’ money may change the complexion of the contract we forged with BCDA vis-à-vis advancing amortizations to GSIS.I too, welcome the President’s guarantee that she is on our side with regards to the purchase issue.”

“However, I am not prepared – and I do believe that you share my thoughts on this – to take subterfuge using Her Excellency’s guarantee if only to dodge the reality of losing the BCC to GSIS just because we cannot honor an earlier agreement.”

He challenged the councilmen, “Will we allow our terms to end with the thought that we could have done something about it?”

“Are we willing to cart the issue in an ejectment case that might drag like the present market development impasse, which debilitates development and use of our physical assets to the chagrin of our electorate?”

Admitting P35-million from the city’s coffers may translate into other projects, he assured the SP, “this will just be for the meantime as we shall exert all efforts to compel BCDA to pay and thereafter, reimburse our coffers with what it owes us.”

In his last ditch effort to convince his co-“end-termers” he justified the move: “the money we shall advance will translate in something beyond the value of money – that is, having high moral ground.”

“We answered for our own obligations… In turn, it puts us in a leverage to demand BCDA to pay what it owes our city in exchange for the development of John Hay,” he explained.

GSIS Housing and Real Property Development Group Officer-in-Charge Dionisio Ebdane, Jr. in his April 10 letter to Bautista said, “GSIS is serving you this final notice to vacate BCC within 30-day.

“As you failed to comply with our notices, thus, this termination of our purchase agreement,” Ebdane added. The deadline was May 11, 2007.


Gun-for-hire suspect nabbed by NBI agents
BY LIAM ANACLETO

CABANATUAN CITY – A suspected member of a dreaded guns-for-hire syndicate allegedly undertaking assassination of politicians was arrested recently by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation here.

Agent-in-charge of the NBI Cabanatuan District Office Pedro Roque Jr. identified the suspected gun-for-hire member as Francis Dayag, 21, of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, reportedly a former member of the New People’s Army.

Roque said the syndicate is operating in the 27 towns and five cities of Nueva Ecija and eights towns of Aurora .

He added this resulted to a series of election-related violent incidents. The violence prompted the Comelec to place Nueva Ecija under its control.

Dayag’s group allegedly carried out ambuscades in northern Nueva Ecija. Roque said Dayag is a remnant of the dreaded Magdawag group, a local counterpart of the Sparrow Unit, the urban liquidation squad of the NPA.

Dayag was arrested in Barangay Umangan. Aliaga by a team of NBI agents composed of Alex Rivera, Edgardo Cucio and Arnaldo Fineza.

The suspect’s presence in the place was tipped to the NBI by a “balikbayan.”


Tribes give ‘prior consent’ to geothermal exploration
BY DEXTER A. SEE

TABUK, Kalinga – This province has the potentials to become the geothermal capital of Luzon as indicated by bullishness of investors over the province’s geothermal energy sources.

This developed after residents of five ancestral domains in Kalinga, particularly in Pasil and Tinglayan towns, gave their fee, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to the joint venture proposal for a geothermal exploration by the Aragon Power and Energy Corp. and Guidance Management Corp.

Officials of the National Commission on Indigenous People’s NCIP in the Cordillera said that their office in Kalinga had already complied with the needed processes.

The result of the FPIC showed that five communities, particularly the indigenous peoples of Balatoc, Guinaang, and Colayo of Pasil and the Sumadel and Bangad of Tinglayan, gave their consent to the proposal for geothermal exploration.

However, it was not clear if the given consent is only for exploration and if the proponents have applied for another FPIC for development and operation – that is if the exploration yields positive results.

It was learned that the proponents applied for eight areas for geothermal exploration, but Tulgao and TInglayan rejected the proposal, and the Dananao tribe in Pasil was still undecided on it.

With the consent given by the five communities to the geothermal exploration, the NCIP provincial office in Kalinga has forwarded its report to the NCIP regional office for endorsement to the NCIP central office for the issuance of the certificate of pre-condition to the proponents of the project.

The proponents would then present the certificate to the Department of Energy (DoE) for its action on the application.

The same process will be done in the case of Tulgao which rejected the proposal, but the NCIP will issue the certificate of precondition if an when the President finally appoints a fourth batch of commissioners of NCIP.

A certificate of precondition has to be deliberated on by the NCIP en banc, but at present only one commissioner has been appointed.

Geothermal plants are not only environmentally-friendly but are also advantageous in enhancing the economy because it is reliable sources of power, it was learned.

The country’s geothermal output is equivalent to at least 92 million barrels of fuel a year which means savings of at least P5 billion that would have been used to pay for oil exports.

Apart from this benefit, the local government units hosting the geothermal projects would be getting 40 percent share from the national wealth tax. The national government gets 60 percent of the tax.



Renowned artists set pottery workshop in Benguet town
BY MAURICE MALANES

BAGUIO CITY – Renowned foreign and local artists will facilitate a pottery workshop focusing on monkeys as theme in the upland town of Kibungan in Benguet as part of a series of activities leading towards World Environment Day on June 5, announced a local environmental group.

The May 22-23 pottery workshop for children aims to generate from participants some 100 monkey masks. "By focusing on the faces of monkeys, the workshop seeks to help enable the children of Kibungan understand nature values, appreciate indigenous materials, and to view
nature through art because monkeys used to teem in Kibungan before its forests were gone," said Mariko Banasan of the Cordillera Green Network, which is organizing the activity.

The 100 masks will be featured in a month-long exhibit dubbed "Where Have All the Monkeys Gone?" starting World Environment Day on June 5, 2007 at the Victor Oteyza Community Art Space (VOCAS), Top Floor, La Azotea Building, Session Road, Baguio City.

The workshop in Kibungan and the exhibit at VOCAS seek "to bring into our attention the monkeys, whose extinction indicates how we have failed to protect and preserve our forests and environment," said Banasan.

Facilitating the workshop are artists Midori Hirota (Japanese), Nurdian Ichsan (Indonesian), Kawayan Thor de Guia (Filipino), and Reynaldo A. Pellos, A US Peace Corps volunteer based in Kibungan.

All dabbling in ceramics among other fields of art, the artists also advocate for the protection of the environment and of the planet as a whole.


Donors support People’s Watch in pursuit of clean Baguio polls

BAGUIO CITY – Several donors supported People’s Watch the last elections “in pursuit of clean, credible and honest elections.”

Maureen Loste, a People's Watch convenor of the Regional Ecumenical Council in the Cordillera said several individuals and groups pitched in to support the volunteers of the People's Watch, a broad multi-sectoral alliance of non-government organizations and concerned citizens.

“Without their material and financial support, the endeavor would not have been as successful,” Loste said, adding financial requirements of putting up an independent electoral watchdog were tremendous.

Donors provided the group with office supplies, food, communication and transportation facilities, aside from their actual participation in voter's education, poll and canvass watch, legal assistance, monitoring fraud and soliciting logistics, according to Loste.

People's Watch also thanked members of the Baguio-based tri-media for lending their support in the Media Watch during the elections.

Among the donors People’s Watch acknowledged were Annabelle Estepa's Soroptimist International of Pines City, who supplied meals and snacks for at least 50 persons on May 14; Mikasan's German and Liza Ilagan; Rico's Mineral Water; Brgy. Capt. Aida Monteclaro; John Nassr of Pizza Volante; Globe Tele-communications for 25- P300 prepaid cards; Atty. Raul Molintas for free use of a car with gasoline on May 14 and 15;

For cash donations, People's Watch cited Ellen Lao; Jose-Casusi;Dr. Mark Ventura; Kidlat Tahimik; Carlos Anton of Sizzling Plate; Eng. Tom Panis of REALEZA Development. Corporation.;Dr. Rogelio Bay -an; Baguio Travel Co.'s Ms. Nieves Blanco; Jeremy & Rosalie Javellonar; Atty. Wilbert Tan; . Unique Printing Press; Benguet Electric Corporation; Des Cereno; Jerrylyn San Jose ; David and Jeng Roxas; and the Baguio City First United Methodist Church .


Truck runs over man in Urdaneta City

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan – A man was not able to cast his vote on May 14 because he met an accident while sitting at a road shoulder along McArthur Highway , Zone 3, Barangay Nancamaliran West, this city.

Urdaneta police identified the victim as Cesar Baroga, 39, married, tricycle driver, resident of Nancamaliran West.

Police said the victim died instantly due to severe injuries in different parts of the body when he was run over an Elf truck bearing plate number ZCV-235 and driven by Ruel Cammayo y Cuddal 38, married, businessman, of Barangay Dirita, Iba, Zambales.

Investigations showed the Isuzu Elf truck was speeding on the highway when the accident took place.

The truck hit the victim when it reportedly veered from the road. – Jennelyn Mondejar


Ecija farmers earning more from hybrid rice
BY MARVYN BENANING

STO. DOMINGO, Nueva Ecija -- Members of the Bagong Buhay Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Barangay Mabini here are earning more from their farms because they shifted to high-yielding hybrid rice varieties.

As a model hybrid-rice cluster, more than 200 hectares of rice fields owned by members of the cooperative were planted to hybrid rice in this year’s dry cropping season.

The farmers have harvested an average yield of 180 cavans of palay per hectare (cav/ha) at 56 kilograms per cavan (kg/cav).

Jojo Garcia, chairman of the cluster, said he got an average yield of 200 cav/ha in his 12-hectare farm. He said that the highest yield in the cluseter as 246 cav/ha, while the lowest was 173 cav/ha, a figure that is still higher than what they would usually get from ordinary or inbred rice varieties.

One member of the cluster, Mabini Barangay Captain Sebastian Garcia, harvested 205 cavans of 56 kg/cav, equivalent to 11.5 metric tons per hectare (mt/ha).

If Garcia sells his fresh produce at P10.30/kg, he would get a gross income of P118,244. deducting the hybrid-rice cost of production of P45,000/ha, he would enjoy a net income of P73,244. farmers who grow ordinary rice usually net P15,000-P25,000 per hectare only.

“When I was planting inbred rice varieties, I got a net income of only P10,000-P15,000 per hectare. But when I used hybrid rice in my seven-hectare farm, I got a net income of P50,000-P60,000 per hectare because I harvested 195 cavans per hectare. I now live with my family in a beautiful house, and bought a hand tractor, an owner-type jeep and a van from my hybrid rice earnings. Tody, I know for sure that hybrid rice really puts a smile in the face of an ordinary farmer like me,” cooperative member Jose Rigo said.

With farmers forming clusters at least 100 hectares, they get a consolidated and coordinated assistance from one another and from the government through the Department of Agriculture-Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (DAGMA) rice program.

DA provides them adequate irrigation, post-harvest facilities, farm-to-farm market roads, credit, and marketing assistance,

“The main advantage of the clustering approach is the convergence of all the production support services to the farmers. This contributed to the attainment of enhanced productivity by the farmers and ensuring profitability which is the main objective of the DA,” said Dr. Frisco Malabanan, DA-GMA rice program national coordinator.

The 52-member Bagong Buhay Multi-Purpose Cooperative was registered with the Cooperative Development Authority on 13 December 2005.