Sign of things to come? COTABATO BANANA GROWERS’ WOES RESOLVED IN A DUTERTE MEETING

By Manny Piñol

God indeed works in mysterious ways.

A logistical meeting which I and former Philippine Sports Commission chairman William “Butch” Ramirez had in Manila yesterday to set up a system of shipping election campaign materials turned out to be a blessing for North Cotabato’s lacatan banana growers.

Butch and I had a meeting lunch meeting yesterday with Jesus Suzara, an executive of 2Go Shipping which handles the shipment of cargoes all over the country.

It was actually in preparation for the expected shipment of campaign materials to support the Presidential candidacy of Mayor Rody Duterte.

During the meeting, I remembered reading in the national papers last week that the lacatan banana growers from my province, North Cotabato, were losing between P4-M to P7-M weekly because of shipment problems.

The banana growers from North Cotabato led by Jun Roque have to bring their products to Cagayan de Oro City where these will be shipped to Cebu City and Metro Manila.

Due to the long trip, the bananas would already be ripe upon arrival in Metro Manila and rejected by the buyers.

After meeting Suzara, I immediately called up Roque and asked what it was that the banana growers needed to prevent the losses.

Roque told me that they needed fruit vans to ensure that the bananas would not ripen during the long sea voyage.

Voila! Here is the result of that Duterte meeting as posted by banana grower Angel Cervantes in his Facebook page early today:

“Meeting over coffee & dinner with Boy Jala, Manager of 2Go Shipping General Santos City and Jun Roque SOBIC12 Chairman and Luis T Chua, Chairman, Mua-an Farmers Producers Cooperative. It was agreed during the negotiations that 2Go Shipping will allocate at least 2 units 20 footer container fruit vans each week to Mua-an Farmers Producers Cooperative. This accommodation by the shipping company will enable the banana farmers to ship out bigger volume of our lacatan banana production to the huge market in Metro Manila. The meeting was made possible through the assistance of former *Gov. Emmanuel Pinol…thank you very much Sir.”

A big headache for Cotabato’s banana growers was solved in a meeting intended to support Duterte’s candidacy.

I have this feeling that many more good things will happen to the Filipino farmers and the country as a whole under the presidency of Rody Duterte.

(Photo caption: A lunch meeting with 2Go executive Jess Suzara and Duterte point person Butch Ramirez (not in photo) resulted in another meeting in General Santos City between Cotabato’s banana growers and 2Go manager. Photo of the meeting by Angel Cervantes.)