MORE NEWS, BENGUET

Cordi govs issue statement of support to President GMA
By Susan C. Aro

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Ssaying they recognize efforts of the administration in the development of the Cordillera, the region’s governors issued a statement of support to the leadership of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo amid calls for her resignation.

Expressing their support were governors Maximo Dalog of Mt. Province, Nestor Fongwan of Benguet, Eustaquio Bersamin of Abra, Teodoro Baguilat, Jr of Ifugao, and Floydelia Diasen of Kalinga.

Their statement: “In the wake of the several and unending issues and controversies being raised against her administration, we take the opportunity of rallying behind her term to reaffirm our commitment of support behind her dynamic leadership until her tem ends in year 2010.”

The governors said it was during Arroyo’s term as president when the region witnessed the implementation of unprecedented major infrastructure projects such as the concreting of the major road networks namely the Halsema Highway, Baguio-Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya National road, Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road, Abatan-Bontoc national road, Bontoc-Banaue-Ifugao road, and te Bontoc-Kalinga-Tabuk National road. This also includes the pipelined concreting of Sabangan-Cervantes national road and improvement and rehabilitation of various provincial roads in the region.

Fongwan, said, “We don’t need more destabilization. We feel the economic gains we achieved derived from the strengthening of the peso to the dollar.” He added whatever amount saved would trigger the development of the economy. “It is just a matter of time when we feel the effects.”

The government is feeling the economic gains realizing the development efforts such as hunger mitigation, health and education among others, he added. “We sincerely support the President not just because we are with the administration. Even the other governors feel the same way. It is only in Metro Manila.”

Dalog said it was during Arroyo’s term that she took notice of the needs of the region such as improvement of main trunk lines.


Farmer-leader’s plea: Please listen to us too
By Ramon Dacawi

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- While governors of the Cordillera feel their provinces are being short-changed in the allocation of funds for farm-to-market roads (FMR), a farmer-leader in Benguet rues his sector is being sidelined from decisions on what and where agricultural development projects should be built. Joe Andiso, president of the Benguet Farmers Fedration, said that while farmers are being asked to determine their priority support needs to boost production and improve marketing strategies for what they produce, they sometimes end up with an empty bag.

Funding for projects farmers have identified are sometimes diverted without their knowledge or consent, Andiso claimed during a forum Sunday with Assistant Agriculture Secretary Salvador Salacup at the National Irrigation Administration regional office in La Trinidad.

The forum was part of the agriculture department’s push for a Northern Luzon Agri-business Quadrangle. Some projects, Andiso observed, end as “white elephonas” or duplications. He cited the establishment of a vegetable trading post in Buguias town and the stringing of a farm-to-road tramline near an existing one in another area of Benguet. “

To serve its purpose, the new tramline could have been installed in another place that really needs it,” he said. Andiso, now on his eighth year as head of the farmers’ federation, also cautioned the DA against building green houses in high elevations buffeted by strong winds that would eventually destroy these facilities.

He asked that funds asked by farmers and approved during planning sessions with them should be used for projects they themselves had identified. On consultations, he said nothing much resulted from matching sessions he and other farmers had with vegetable traders, supposedly to open market outlets for them.

“Ang matsing di pa nagging gorilya,” he quipped. He latter added that farmers invested much just to participate in the matching sessions. Andiso opened up after Salacup asked him what happened to the four trucks the DA provided as market transport support to Benguet farmers. The trucks,
Andiso said, were being managed by the provincial government. A DA representative, however, clarified that the transfer of the trucks was covered by due process.

Andiso’s outpouring preceded another meeting Salacup had with governors Maximo Dalog of Mt. Province, Teddy Baguilt of Ifugao, Floydelia Diasen of Kalinga and Nestor Fongwan of Benguet. Diasen and Baguilat asked why tohr provinces were getting more funds for FMRs. “Why isn’t there an equitable distribution of farm-to-market roads?,” Diasen asked.

“Is there a criterion we (in the Cordillera) are not meeting?,” Baguilat followed up.

Dalog said Mt. Province received only P5 million for FMR projects last year. Likewise for Ifugao, Baguilat added. Salacup assured the governors and Andiso their observations would be relayed to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap. Yap replied with dispatch. In an economic meeting in Malacanang last Tuesday, he reported to President Gloria Arroyo that agricultural programs are now expanding to other provinces of the Cordillera.


Benguet’s cold chain seen as model in RP
By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — This vegetable-producing province will be the model in the implementation of multi-million-peso food and cold-chain projects in the country once a system being installed in Benguet is completed. Officials of the Bureau of Post-Harvest Facilities and Extension said Benguet will be the first province in the country to have a complete cold-chain system and will be tapped as model in the efforts to attain food security of the nation.

In the past several years, this province had been receiving from the national government funds for the establishment of cold-storage facilities, farm-to-market roads, reefer vans, and tramline systems to address a clamor of farmers for government to build improved infrastructure facilities which would result in the speedy transport of agricultural crops.

These efforts have been boosted by President Arroyo’s Super Region concept of development that established the North Luzon Agri-business Quadrangle. It also provided bigger support for the immediate completion of the cold-chain project.

However, it seems that the project could not be completed on time because the cold-chain facilities and reefer vans now in place are not being patronized by farmers who complained about the allegedly excessive cost of the transport of their produce. The first cold-storage facility established in Wangal here in 2004 is now a losing endeavor because of the lack of support by the farmers who bring their produce to the lowlands.

The facility was supposed to help farmers fight vegetable importation and smuggling with improvement of the quality of the local crops. The reasons why the utilization of the cold storage facility was not maximized, aside from the excessive transport cost, include the absence of a pre-cooling facility near the farms, lack of reefer vans to transport the vegetables, and the absence of high-end market where the cooled crops are to be supplied.

Agriculture officials said coldchain facilities could reduce the losses of farmers by as much as 30 percent, but the farmers are not taking advantage of the facilities which may end up soon as "white elephants."

The Department of Agriculture had previously funded several facilities and infrastructure projects in the Cordillera to enable the farmer to realize the benefits of the sustained agriculture program of the Arroyo administration.

The completed facilities in Benguet include a P5-million processing plant in this capital town, tramlines and more farm-to-market roads that shorten the time for the transport of vegetables from the farms to the market. Still, the production cost of vegetables in the province is still too high, and this situation adversely affects the marketability of the local produce. As a result, the locally grown vegetables cannot compete well with the imported ones.