Japan-Benguet projects lauded

By Ellson A. Quismoro

LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET — Japanese diplomats and local officials here were all smiles after seeing the product of Japan’s official development assistance (ODA), which greatly aided the province.

Japanese Ambassador to Philippines Makoto Katsura led on Wednesday a group of diplomats from the Japan Embassy that unveiled to Manila-based reporters two major ODA-backed projects in Benguet: a composting facility for organic fertilizers and the thorough upgrading of the Benguet General Hospital, both in this municipality.

Katsura expressed his satisfaction over the projects funded by the Japanese government through grants under the ODA. “I’m very happy with the results of the ODA. Philippine authorities have been very good in managing the facilities here”, he said.

The grant amount for the organic composting facility was $89,993 while that of the BGH—a much more lengthy and comprehensive endeavor, reached around $32,000,000, according to Embassy Second Secretary (Economic Section) Hirochika Namekawa.

Over in Barangay Alno, Katsura led the “turnover” of the newly-built composting facility to the people of the municipality, which wrestles with the concern of the huge amount of waste produced from its vegetable trading post. More than 1,000 tons of vegetables from the entire province is traded in La Trinidad, resulting into daily waste output of 60 tons from vegetable trimmings alone.

“With this facility, 30 percent of the waste can now be processed into organic fertilizers. Since the soil in Benguet is too acidic, the organic fertilizers will be used to recondition the soil,” said Gov. Nestor Fongwan.

Using the composting facility, the vegetable trimmings will be treated in nine different stages under varying temperatures before they are packed as organic fertilizers.

The process may take over 47 days. Fongwan expressed his gratitude to the envoy, adding that the produced fertilizer would be distributed to the farmers in the whole of Benguet.

La Trinidad Mayor Gregorio Abalos Jr., also at the event, described the facility as “a symbol of the friendship between the Philippines and Japan…a friendship that we wish to nurture.”

With the benefit of the sizeable grant aid, the province now has a public tertiary hospital in the BeGH that would put a lot of private hospitals in Metro Manila to shame. “Stepping in here, you’d never think that this is a government hospital,” Dr. Joseph Cabinta, BeGH chief, told reporters who toured the refurbished medical facility with the Japanese diplomats.

Cabinta boasted that the hospital, which in the past was just an old school building, now has a pacemaker insertion apparatus; four operating rooms; solar-powered water heating system; a freezer-type morgue and a generator that automatically activates within three seconds of a power outage, among others.

Pleased with the results, Namekawa said he was happy to see the state of BeGH after the grant aid.

The fund was also used to strengthen the local health system of the province by providing basic medical equipment for rural health units and district hospitals as well as technical assistance, training and counterpart training from Japan.