Old Man & The Road! 125 Years Is A Long Wait For Freedom From Want

Today, as we celebrate our country’s 125th Year of independence from Spain, our leaders must be reminded that there are still many Filipinos in the hinterlands who still have not been liberated from the bondage of want and poverty.
I met one of them yesterday on the way up to the Teren-teren Plateau in Dado, Alamada, Cotabato yesterday where I am leading the introduction of a new crop, Sorghum, using modern agricultural equipment, including Agricultural Drones for spraying.
An old Iranun man, Gura, was walking down the still-to-be-completed government road project using a cane and I noticed that he had a problem with his vision.
When I stopped to talk to him, he told me he was coming down from his mountain home and the newly-opened road obviously was a big help.
Hindi pa tapos ang kalsada at mahirap daanan lalo na kung umuulan pero nakakatulong na sa mga tao tulad ni Gura at sa mga magsasaka na gumagamit ng cargo motorcycles, kadalasan Kawasaki CT 100 at CT 125.
But come to think of this: Gura had waited over 80 years of his life for the road and it came when he was too old and half-blind to even fully appreciate it.
How many more Guras are there in the remote areas of the country, especially in Mindanao, who still have not ben touched by government and who have to use trails to bring their produce to the market?
Marami pang mga Pilipino ang hindi pa dama ang pag-aaruga ng gobyerno at wala pang mga basic infrastructure like a farm-to-market road.
This is the reason why I had been very vocal with my criticism for the wastage of government funds in constructing those useless center islands in the national highways or the periodic excavation of still functional concrete roads to be paved again.
For me, those are all manifestations of an insensitive governance and maybe symbols of greed and corruption.
Ang dami pang mga Pilipino ang walang mga kalsada tapos winawaldas lang ang pondo sa proyektong alam naman natin na hindi importante.
I hope our government planners and policy makers will wake up and realize this.
Marami pang mga katulad ni Gura na tumanda na pero hindi pa din lubos naiiintidhan ang kahulogan ng Kalayaan at hindi nararamdaman ang pagmamahal ng pamahalaan.
Happy Independence Day and may we finally liberate our people completely from the bondage of want and poverty.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!