Yesterday, I took a 10-hour trip, back and forth, to a village in Maitum, Saranggani Province to deliver a promise to an old farmer with the biggest Carabao in Mindanao.
This was actually part of the fun game I held on-line last May, the Farmer’s Month, where I offered a prize of 60 heads of Manok Pinoy breeders, the backyard chicken strain which I developed in my farm, to the farmer with the biggest Carabao.
The son of 88-year-old Flaviano Tamba, Lorenzo, sent in photos of his father’s huge Carabao with old farmer’s grandchildren riding on it.
It won the contest hands down.
Yesterday, I travelled to Barangay Pangi, Maitum bringing with me the promised prize to the old man who was so proud of and loved his Carabao that he refused a buyer’s offer of P75,000 for it.
He said he bought the young bull when it was only 4 years old and he had kept it for 14 years.
Old farmer Flaviano, originally from Culasi, Antique, married an Ilocana and settled in the predominantly-Ilocano community Maitum, one of the coastal towns of Saranggani Province.
When I met him yesterday, he spoke fluent Ilocano but with a funny Antiqueño intonation.
At 88, he is a fulfilled farmer with about 7-hectares which he would share among his 6 children and grandchildren and a huge Carabao which he asked his children to take care of when he is gone.
Last year, he lost his wife who suffered a stroke and at age 83, he said he suffers from health issues.
But he was strong enough to show off his Carabao, a bullock or a castrated bull, which he said had helped him in farming.
The whole neighborhood, including the barangay chairman, Manuel Nonat, also an Ilocano, turned up in old Flaviano’s house to receive me.
Everybody was proud that the former Agriculture Secretary and now still a member of the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) visited the remote village.
The Mayor of the town, who was out of the area, sent the municipal agriculturist, Noel Naungayan, to document the turn-over of the breeding materials.
He promised to support and supervise the Manok Pinoy project so that the town would have a source of breeding materials for dispersal later.
True to the tradition among people in the rural area, the family prepared “pancit,” cassava cake and “Coks” (Coca Cola) to celebrate what they described as a once-in-a-lifetime event.
But the proudest of them all was old man Flaviano who admired the body structure of the Manok Pinoy pullets and cockerels which I gave him.
“Puede ko ba ni ibulang?” he asked me. (Can I fight them in the cockpit.)
This made me laugh hard and I told him that if would do that, he would only be giving his fellow “sabungero” a tasty chicken “tinola.”
#WhenFarmersMeet!
(Photos of the visit to old farmer Flaviano Tamba were taken by the Media Team of the Mindanao Development Authority.)
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