Love Affair with Samar!

POOR PEOPLE IN FERTILE LAND;

RURAL DEVELOPMENT ENIGMA

By Manny Piñol

It is not that a fourth of me is “Waray” which gives me this feeling of kinship with the people of Samar and Leyte, rather it is my inquisitiveness, my desire to understand complex situations which draw me to this island of great ironies.

Samar Island and the three provinces in it are listed in the 10 poorest areas of the Philippines, with poverty incidence reaching as high as 50%.

Yet, with 1.3-million hectares of rich and fertile lands with huge rivers meandering in its plains, Samar holds the potential of becoming a major food production area.

The “Warays” of Samar are known as brave warriors, a folklore proven in the historic “Balangiga Attack” where natives of the island armed only with bolo and spears decimated a company of American soldiers in Balangiga town, earning a retaliation where an American General ordered his men to turn the island into a “howling wilderness.”

Yet, the people of the island are so afraid to venture beyond what they have been used to and comfortable with as exemplified by their continued use of primitive farming methods instead of adopting new technologies.

The “Warays” of Samar are known to be rebellious earning the tag of being the center of the Communist Insurgency Movement in the whole Philippines with the rebels’ unofficial headquarters in Las Navas town.

Yet, the “Warays” have remained meek and submissive to the decades of political exploitation where they only get to fill the supermarkets and malls to go on a shopping spree after every election.

I have passed through Samar on long drives from Manila to Cotabato and back as a young journalist.

I loved the scenery along the way and it made me understand the realities of life in the remote regions of the country.

When my second daughter, Josa Bernadette, was only 6-months old, I took her and the family on a long trip from Manila to Cotabato using a VW Beetle I borrowed from the late Danny Floro.

When my youngest son, Imman, was a toddler, the family took the same route from Davao to Manila for a Christmas vacation.

Along the way, Samar stood out as the odd place where houses are built by the side of the national highway where men would drink their coffee in the morning as they massaged their roosters in preparation for a hackfight.

Passing by the area early evening, you would see intoxicated men zigzagging beside the highway and hear loud music of benefit dances in village centers.

Things have changed lately as I have seen improvements in the communities I have been to as Secretary of Agriculture.

But the poverty incidence is still high and agricultural production is very low.

This is the puzzle that I would like to solve, an enigma that I would like to find answers to.

Last Thursday, Dec. 20, I visited Catubig and Mapanas towns in Northern Samar and made a promise that under the administration of President Rody Duterte, Samar will undergo a radical transformation, especially in Agriculture.

Our target is to make Samar Island one of the major producers of rice in the country by introducing modern technology and extending the needed support.

In response, local officials led by Congressman Edwin Ong, announced that next month, Northern Samar will pass a resolution declaring me as an “Adopted Son of Samar.”

I told them that there is no need for that resolution because I have long considered myself as part of Samar.

I fell in love with Samar as a young man and I can show that love for the island now that I have the delegated power and authority from President Duterte to make a difference in the lives of the Warays of the island.

The love affair will go beyond my tour of duty as Secretary of Agriculture.

That was the promise I made last week and a vow I will fulfil even as a private citizen.

(Photos showing the scenery and rivers of Samar were all downloaded from public websites while the last two photos were taken during my recent visit to Northern Samar.)