LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza
Marag Valley and Mang Esko’s dream

Marag Valley was beginning to get back its life in 1999 when I visited with a group of newsmen, together with then Mayor Betty Versola of Luna and Apayao DepEd Superintendent Dr. Philip Flores.

The last contingent of Philippine Army soldiers was still there. They believed that there were still NPA fighters roaming in the vicinity so the soldiers built a 40-foot bamboo look-out tower.

At Marag Elementary School , a concrete marker near the flagpole contained more than 200 names of the government soldiers, NPA fighters and civilians who were killed “by” the war. The names were etched on the marker as a reminder to all about the ugliness that the war brought to Marag Valley .

The valley is so rich with natural resources that it attracted speculators and land grabbers. Marag farmers had to resist these groups from exploiting their rich natural resources and needed all the assistance they can get, including the help from the NPA.

Jovencio T. Bullaoit, Luna town’s present mayor said, it was then that a “shadow government” by the NPA was established in Marag. The lone barangay of Marag, now subdivided into three namely, Bucao (which retained its old name of Marag), Calabigan and Cagandungan was in the center of a “20 year war” between the NPA and government forces.

In fact, there were reports that said the military used the NPAs' presence as its excuse to make sure that “development” and road improvement that led to big-scale logging that has been allowed with the issuance of permits by the central government, would be implemented.

Gov. Elias K. Bulut whose wife hails from Marag said the valley is now a progressive place with more new roads and schools but that “sometimes progress is ugliness,” even mentioning that there are still “people with personal interests who want to rape” the natural resources of Apayao.

In a short talk with Dr. Zacharias Baluscang Jr, president of Apayao State College, who was born and raised in Marag, he confirmed Bulut’s statement of a Marag Valley that is reforming and “NPA-free.”

However, Marag folks continue to fight a harder “battle” that disturbs them although the shooting war has stopped, in the sense that hundreds of children in the valley were prevented from entering formal elementary education due to the war.

Jun Baluscang said that with the Marag experience, there is reason to legislate a law to provide special education to children affected by the war which may also be a law applicable in all war-torn areas in the country. Republic Act 8895 has been passed to establish the Marag Valley Agricultural and Trade School for secondary education and vocational courses but that is not enough.
***
Cruising in Apayao and some towns of Cagayan Valley through hectares of
green fields planted to varieties of rice makes one think about the life that rice farmer
Mang Esko led. Imagine him tend to ricefields from dawn till dusk everyday of the
year, rain or shine. Then think of the greater role that the farmers perform in a society,
which is to feed the Pinoy nation – a role that sometimes eclipses personal interests
such as family and survival.

The farmer tills the earth because that may be his means of livelihood but the bigger picture obliges him to do just that if only to save a nation from going hungry. That has been the situation for the longest time and I can not avoid thinking of how or why government effort to improve the status of food-producing communities has not made impressive impact on the farmer’s life.

Thanks and no thanks to land reform where glamourized benefits have yet to be felt by the farmers. Thanks and no thanks too to programs about farm subsidies implemented by the likes of Jocjoc Bolante. Because of these, the rice farmer of yesterday is the same farmer today.

That is the situation in the farmer’s endless struggle for a better life. And if so, then concerned government departments have all the reason to call for a review of their so-called programs and put in place better solutions that would directly benefit the farmer and the family.

Francisco Ramos, 62, father to two boys is a rice farmer in Pamplona , Cagayan Valley . I met him during the Cordillera Regional Development Council meeting in Luna, Apayao. When I asked what his two boys were busy with, he said they help him with farm work.

“Nag-adal da ti elementary ken vocational high school ngem saan dan nakasrek iti kolehiyo ta awan met ti pangmatrikula ken kasapulak iti katulong nga agtalon. Lumakay met ti taon ket awan sabali nga pagbiyagan nu saan nga dyta agmula ti pagay.” (They finished elementary and vocational high school but did not enroll in college because they did not have tuition money and I needed help in field work. I am getting old and there is no other means of survival other than to plant rice.)

Once in a while we come across stories of farmers who offer their ricefields as collateral to rich money lenders or sell their carabao in order to send their kids to college. That shows that they too dream that their children will someday become professionals – teachers, policemen, nurses, doctors, lawyers or anything that is different from actually tilling the soil.

Aside from saving money from rice farming, Mang Esko’s wife augments their income with her small store. One of his boys, on the other hand, earns extra money by driving a tricycle while the other manages a single table billiard room where most of their farmer-neighbors meet after field work. His boys also own an electronic repair shop.

In the conversation that ensued, Mang Esko hoped that with his children becoming more financially stable, they will be able to buy the ricefield that his Lolo has been tilling ever since. He also had high hopes that his grandchildren will not go the same way that he, his Lolo, father and his two boys passed through. He knows that his two boys will see to it that his grandchildren will finish college and become professionals.

When that time comes, the farmer’s status shall have improved – from the ricefield peat to the dry concrete floor. As for the children, they will no longer be tilling the soil like their forefathers did but they will be seated behind the cash register and supervising a farm that they now own.

Mang Esko’s dream will not remain a dream forever. He said something about a solution to the ‘dream.’ Though his face showed years of weariness, I saw that he was contented with life as he pointed to government “returning the efforts of poor rice farmers by providing free education for their kids from elementary to college and seeing to it that they are employed.”

In a soft voice Mang Esko said, “mangipasa kuma dagiti opisyales tayu iti maysa a linteg para iti ubbing dagiti manalon.” (I hope our officials pass a law for farmers’ children). In fact, his solution was practical and radical at the same time – “education for the farmers’ children.” Indeed, this may be realized through proper legislation, just like the proposed legislation for the displaced school children of war-torn areas.

Congress representatives, if they are not too occupied with their investigations, can easily find the formula on how to subsidize and provide special educational fund for Mang Esko’s dream. Congress is such a powerhouse composed of bright minds, they do understand the proposal because 70 per cent of them represent agricultural communities.

Giving back certain financial percentages to rice farmers computed according to the volume of production may be a solution. If so, it might even encourage farmers to plant more. Government subsidizes the tobacco industry, why not for rice and other agricultural products.

Also, maybe government can further help the rice farmer if it buys their rice produce instead of importing from other countries. There is no doubt that economics is stronger if money circulates in our farms – not in the farms of other countries. But with the rate we are going in the importation of rice, we are helping improve the economy of other countries.

Maybe when answers to Marag Valley and Mang Esko’s woes are found, the farmer’s sweat will taste sweeter, no longer bitter. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com