Kidapawan City – Today, I and the team from the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will again embark on a four-day journey covering three Northern Mindanao provinces to finalize the implementation of the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” Program of the Duterte Presidency.
This trip will bring us to Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Norte and then Zamboanga del Sur where I will be meeting the Governors and local officials to lay the groundwork for the BPBPP.
The family has advised me against taking another trip in the face of uncertainties brought about by the COVID 19 Pandemic knowing of my vulnerability as a senior citizen.
I know the risks but I have to do this or else nothing would move.
Traveling to the remotest areas of the country has been part of my governance philosophy.
Meeting poor people in the countryside, listening to them, feeling their pulse and sharing their grief, joy and dreams have given me very important inputs which led to the crafting of so many programs which are now institutionalized in government.
This “Biyaheng Bukid” advocacy started when I was Governor of North Cotabato.
On weekends, I would bring my tent and spend the night in remote villages of the province talking to people and (at that time) sharing Tanduay or White Castle with them.
It was in one of those journeys when I met a poor farmer in tattered clothes, Arnaldo Berber, in Sitio Tagaytay, Barangay Mahongkog, Magpet town.
I saw him planting corn using a shovel and when I asked him why he was doing that, he said he did not have a carabao.
Two weeks later, I sent him a carabao loaded in a dumptruck complete with plow, corn seeds and fertilizer.
I forgot all about him until I returned to the village two years later where Berber rushed to meet me. He hugged me crying and said that the help government gave him allowed his children to go back to school.
Berber said he was able to buy a homelot in the village proper because of the carabao, plow, corn seeds and fertilizer.
The story of how that poor farmer was lifted out of dire poverty because government heard his cries has inspired me to continue reaching out to people.
When I was Agriculture Secretary, I started the Biyaheng Bukid, a journey to the farthest areas of the country which brought me to such remote places as Batanes, Sulu, Mindoro , Masbate, Basilan, Tawitawi and Catanduanes.
Today, as MinDA Chairman, I continue the journey because I know that in the backwaters of the country, there are still many Arnaldo Berbers who dream that someday, government will touch their lives.
Traveling, listening, feeling people’s pulse and sharing their pain and dreaming their dreams will be my commitment for as long as I am in public service.
(Those wondering why I am not wearing a mask, the photos showing flooded areas were taken in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur in December 2017. Only the photo showing me with the soldiers were taken during the COVID Period.£
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