By Manny Piñol
A book which contains a compilation of stories of my journeys to the countryside during the first year of my task as Agriculture Secretary will be launched in June of this year.
“Biyaheng Bukid: A Journey of Love” will be my second book since I wrote “Feeding Millions” exactly two years ago this month.
The publication of the second book would not be possible without the help of my former journalism colleagues who helped piece together all the articles I wrote in this Facebook page since the day I started the nation-wide journey to the remotest areas of the country.
Former Manila Bulletin news and sports editor, Ding Marcelo and veteran journalists Noel Albano, Bobby Capco, Manny Angeles, Rey Rivera, supported by the staff of the DA Agriculture and Fisheries Information Division (AFID), painstakingly went over the hundreds of articles I have posted and linked them up based on the commonality of threads.
Since what I did was actually journalism on the run, meaning I wrote the articles while I was inside my vehicle traveling from one place to another, in airport terminals, while waiting for the ferry boat to bring me to an island and even while in the plane, they had to do a lot of editorial work.
Just what is “Biyaheng Bukid?”
Here is a previous post I made giving readers a perspective of what “Biyaheng Bukid” is.
“BIYAHENG BUKID’ JOURNEY TOUCHES
LIVES OF THE POOR IN COUNTRYSIDE
By Manny Piñol
There is a story behind my constant journey to the countryside which is now known as “Biyaheng Bukid.”
It happened when I was Governor of North Cotabato when I made it a point to spend Friday nights in a remote village talking to the people over bottles of Tanduay or White Castle and sleep overnight in a tent which I brought with me.
In one of the villages where I spent the night, Mahongkog in Magpet town, I decided the following morning to take a walk to a sitio called Tagaytay wearing hiking shoes and shorts.
I passed by a small hut where I saw a farmer planting corn using a shovel and I asked him why that was the way he planted corn.
Not knowing who I was, he told me that he had no working animal and he had no plow.
Looking around, I saw two heads of goats and I asked him if he would trade his goats with a carabao.
He gave me a quizzical look so I had to tell him that I was his Governor and I was serious about my offer.
I got the goats and a week later, I asked my staff to send him a carabao complete with farm implements – a plow and all accessories – with a sack of corn seeds and a few sacks of fertilizers.
Then I forgot all about him until I met him again two years later when I returned to the village.
Arnaldo Berber, that is the name of the farmer, came to me with tears in his eyes. But he looked better compared to when we first met.
He was already wearing a polo shirt and long pants and rubber shoes.
“Sir, do you still remember me?,” he asked me as tears flowed down his cheeks.
“The carabao and the plow that you gave me changed my life. I was able to send my children to school and I was able to buy a small lot here in the barrio proper where we now have a decent home,” Berber told me as he proceeded to hug me.
I remember that I shed a tear too because that was a heartwarming story and a reward for my effort to walk an extra kilometer just to talk to people.
Beyond the feeling of being rewarded, however, I asked myself: How many more Arnaldo Berbers are their in the countryside, in the mountains, in the remote villages who are waiting for government to touch their lives and change it for the better.
How many more families could be lifted out of poverty if only we people in government would spend an extra working hour, travel a few hundred kilometers more and explore the edges of the country to see how neglected and abandoned families live?
This is what keeps me going in the journey called “Biyaheng Bukid.”
It is hard and rigorous, especially for a not-so-young-anymore man like me who is starting to suffer from back pains.
That is the mission of the Department of Agriculture now: Improve Food Production and Reduce Poverty in the countryside.
When we are able to achieve that, the hardships I experience in the long journeys of “Biyaheng Bukid” would be soothed by the thought that more Arnaldo Berbers have felt that government cares for them.”
(Photos attached here were taken in the many Biyaheng Bukid journeys I made during my first year as Agriculture Secretary.)
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