HaPpY WEEKEND
Gina Dizon
MOUNTAIN PROVINCE- Livelihood remains to be a major concern among the 159,422 residents of this province north of the country. For Mountain Province which remains among the country’s top poorest provinces (Bureau of Agricultural Research 2007) unemployment rate at 9% has a number of its people jobless. Others leave their hometown for economic opportunities in other places of the country and abroad.
Kailyan from Mountain Province had long migrated to Mindanao as plantation workers, as miners in Benguet, as farmer-landowners in Tabuk-Kalinga, and join the lot of Filipinos working abroad as domestic helpers, teachers, nurses and caregivers.
Those left home tend to the remaining 10% agricultural space. Others work on private business including retail, transport, tourism business, and employment in government. While that is so, a take home pay is barely enough to answer basic commodity needs and fees for children’s education.
Basically mountainous with 90% forest cover, one would ponder what livelihood opportunities are there in a forested place of towering and rolling ridges.
Let us know what congressional candidates say about livelihood prospects in Mountain Province.
OTOP
Congressional candidate and former Sabangan mayor Jupiter Dominguez goes for promoting the One Town One Product (OTOP) of each place. The province has diverse OTOP products. The Department of Trade and Industry say Sagada, Besao, Sabangan, Tadian, Bontoc, and Barlig consider eco-tourism as their OTOP. Bauko has fruit wines and vegetables. Sadanga has legumes. Natonin abounds in abaka. Paracelis is noted for its rice and corn. Other popular products include weaving items made in almost all the ten towns of the province. Coffee is fast becoming a specialty produce in Sagada, Besao, Tadian, where the high elevation growing Coffee Arabica thrives best. Processed foods include fruit jams, jellies, pickles and peanut butter.
With initiatives from the hardworking people of the province, congressional candidate and incumbent governor Maximo Dalog supported the Lang-ay wines of Bauko, popularized during the yearly Lang-ay festivals.
Also, the incumbent governor assisted the initiatives of coffee makers of Sagada establish the packaged Sagada Arabica coffee; and so with the initiatives of former Presidential Assistant for Cordillera Affairs and congressional candidate Thomas Killip who facilitated the Provincial Coffee Development Council in support of municipal coffee councils. Sagada Arabica coffee was popularized during the visit of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Sagada in 2006.
With these initiatives, it remains that major products of the province need further support. For one, the province’s products are not that produced en masse due to lack of equipment. Lang-ay wines, coffee and processed jams and jellies are produced the manual way. Abaka by-products in Natonin and woven items from the province, remains wanting of promotion and marketing. The current market does not produce a big bulk to enable mass sale of the products.
Dominguez in his congressional bid intends to allocate funds for the procurement of facilities for the processing, packaging, and marketing of OTOP products.
COOPERATIVES
Congressional candidates Dominguez, Killip, Dalog and incumbent Bontoc mayor Frank Odsey include in their platform the need to support cooperatives by providing development fund allocation. Development of community cooperatives includes among others- wood and metal works, rattan products, pottery, food processing, and beverages-coffee and tea.
Capital and technology development remains a need in furthering community initiatives. Recently, the Department of Agriculture awarded P700, 000 to farmer’s cooperatives specializing in different products including beekeeping and wine making. Beneficiaries of fund assistance are: Sagada Beekeepers Cooperative, Besao Farmers Association, Besao Small Scale Association, Maggon Rural Improvement Club-Sabangan, Episcopal Church Women – Bontoc, Sallog-Sin-ag-I Association- Bontoc, Guinzadan Norlu Association- Bauko, Lang-ay Wine Processors Association- Bauko, and Anabel Rural Improvement Club-Sadanga.
Congressional support would make a difference in furthering the improvement of local industries.
AGRICULTURE
Farming remains to be the major livelihood among the province’s 90,000 work force. As it is, agriculture needs support to enable technology development and construction of much needed facilities including farm- to-market roads and irrigation facilities.
Congressional candidates all bat for agricultural productivity and sustainability with special focus in organic farming. For one, the promotion of organic fertilizers is a sustainable method needing application instead of chemical farming . As noted, DA officials claim that Mountain Province soil is very ‘sick’ due to use of too much chemical fertilizer in soils.
SEZ
With Bauko and Tadian close to the gateway to the Ilocos, Bauko and Tadian is envisioned by congressional aspirant Odsey, as a Special Economic Zone where farm products can be processed and marketed. A SEZ in Bauko-Tadian opens up to the commercial area in Poro Point in the Ilocos, aside from the usual road outlet to Baguio. Opening a SEZ in this area would spur economic development for the province.
ECO-TOURISM
Ecotourism is a major OTOP among the ten municipalities of the province. It remains to be a source of livelihood among the residents of the tourist town of Sagada by hotel and restaurant owners, guides and shop keepers. Sagada is known for its most visited Sumaguing Cave and Bomod-ok waterfalls. The promotion of other places in the province as alternative spots to visit aside from the popular tourist town is needed.
Other towns of the Province with their respective features await projection. Bontoc is known for its museum and Maligcong rice terraces. Sabangan abounds with panoramic sceneries; and so with Bauko’s vegetable terraces and Tadian’s panoramic view of the historic Tirad Pass. Barlig offers cool sceneries, springs and waterfalls aside from hosting the second highest mountain of Mt Amuyao good for mountain climbing. Sadanga hosts astounding rice terraces aside from its waterfalls and hot springs.
It is a remaining call to let municipal programs and congressional support consider community plans on tourism.
The vision of the Province in 1998 remains: ‘a fruit and vegetable basket a water base and energy supplier, a showcase of developed ethnic crafts, and an eco-cultural tourism destination.’
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