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.
This was the reason why I travelled to Mapanas, Norther Samar yesterday by sailing through Catubig River for one hour and travelled by land for at least two more hours from Catarman to Laoang and from Palapag to Mapanas.
Yesterday, in Mapanas, I saw farmers and fishermen in tears again even when all that they got were just 50 fishing boats and commitments of support and assistance from government.
I told the crowd of farmers and fishermen that I will come back after two years and check whether their lives improved after receiving the help from government.
They all applauded loudly when I told them that I wanted to see them in more decent clothes, perhaps riding motorcycles or pick ups after two years.
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 of the journey in Mapanas, Northern Samar taken by Alan Jay Jacalan, DA AFID)
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