Biyaheng Bukid Day 6 DISCOVERING BICOL, THE SLEEPING GIANT

By Manny Piñol

This article is a day late and I apologise.

I was not able to post any update yesterday as fatigue caught up with me.

Besides, after arriving in Metro Manila late Monday night, I woke up to a Tuesday which started very early with a series of meetings which lasted until 11 p.m. last night.

Biyaheng Bukid landed in Matnog, Sorsogon at about 4 a.m. Sunday after a rigorous 2-hour ferryboat ride from Allen, Samar.

Waking up to a beautiful Sunday morning, I again saw the Bicol I have long admired and fell in love with since the day I climbed the mountains of Oas to interview Communist rebel leader Sotero Llamas when I was a young journalist.

With its rich volcanic soil and very friendly and industrious people, I consider Bicol as a Sleeping Giant in the country’s food production effort.

Everywhere, it is green and the soil is almost black indicating fertility.

Bicol, however, has not realised its full potential as a food producer for Metro Manila and the reason is simple – transportation.

Transporting goods from the tip of the Bicol Archipelago and its island provinces to Metro Manila is so difficult that somehow this has stunted the growth of the region.

I wanted to make a side trip to the island-province of Catanduanes but I was told that it would take about 4 hours by ferryboat to Virac.

Transporting goods from the southernmost part of Bicol to Metro Manila would take almost a day through the long and winding road peppered with police checkpoints not to mention the LTO agents who hide in ambush for cargo trucks along the way.

Things are about to change though.

During his visit to the Bicol Region early this year, President-elect Rody Duterte promised to immediately start the rehabilitation of the Railway System from Metro Manila to the southern part of the archipelago, popularly known as the Bicol Express.

As the incoming secretary of agriculture whose task is to make sure that food is available and affordable to the Filipinos, especially those living in the urban centres, I fully support President-elect Rody Duterte’s identification of the Bicol Railway System as a priority project of his administration.

I believe that with the reopening of the railway system, the growth of the Bicol Region including the island-provinces of Masbate, Marinduque and Catanduanes would be spurred.

Just like the vision that I have for the Samar Island Provinces, I will also work closely with the local government leaders and people’s organisations in the region so that the full potentials of Bicol in food production will be realised.

(Photo of the railway of the Bicol Railway System in Quezon Province taken by John Pagaduan. Image of the Bicol Expess train with Mayon Volcano in the background downloaded from inquirer.net.)