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- Ali G. Macabalang

Calculated poverty

Three weeks ago, I got a word from one of the staff of my intimate friend Rep. Jun Piol (North Cotabato, 2nd District) asking for the possibility of my service to help in the publication of the magazine you now hold. I promptly replied a big YES.

Rep. Piol, just like his brothers led by Vice Gov. Manny Pinol, is a performer. And he would want to publicize his humble accomplishments and aspirations, using this magazine as one of the tools.

In public service, performing the functions prescribed in ones position is a duty. And informing the public of ones activities is a responsibility in a fashion that has become imperative amid the mounting cases of unveiled scandals in the national governments fiscal administration.

Kudos, pareng Jun, for coming up with The Voz, a term said to be a Spanish word for the voice. Other members of Congress and government executives should replicate the venture for the sake of transparency in service.

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Pareng Jun has hit the nail right on the head when declared that government financial resources have not been fully and properly spent for undertakings that would stimulate robust and sustainable economic progress.

True in his exemplification of agriculture as an arena of loopholes in the use of government money, the neophyte lawmaker is advocating for a redirected government thrust in the country, especially in Mindanao - the Island of never fulfilled promise.

When I was an elementary pupil in a rural village in Lanao del Sur, four of our teachers had touted often the farmers as the backbone of the nation.

Ideally, farmers are the nations backbone in an agriculture country like the Philippines.

But in sad reality, because of what Rep. Pinol lamented as governments lack of precise policy and support, Filipino farmers have not served as backbone because they are impoverished.

Filipino farmers live profuse poverty in sharp contrast to their counterparts in developed nations like the United States who are moneyed and respected.

They cannot be the backbone of the nation because their own spinal column is left weak and bereft of proper nourishment by the government.

Rep. Piol has portrayed the life of Filipino farmers in more blunt words: Our farmers are in ICU (intensive care units) with their spines badly damaged.

Many of our farmers, who realized severe income deficiency in farming rice and corn, have abandoned their villages and migrated to urban centers like Metro Manila to try their luck in enterprises foreign to them.

Their forced adventurism in cities is more often than not resulting in malady because some farmer migrants, in their desire to earn more income, joined illegal drug trafficking and ended up in jail.

I know some female migrants, who have not only languished in jail but also got impregnated by guards and prisons. What a misery stemming from lack of proper and ample government support in agriculture!

Advocates of genuine agriculture, like Rep. Jun and Vice Gov. Manny Piol, are pushing for massive farming of rubber, oil palm, coconut, banana, cacao and other high value crops because they believe this is the best way to make Filipino farmers financially empowered at par with foreign counterparts.

Malaysia has tremendously boomed economically through its firmly sustained rubber and oil palm farming industries. Robust agriculture has made Thailand and Vietnam rice exporters.

It is saddening to realize that in 1960s and 1970s, students from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam studied agriculture in the Philippines, which was then a strong nation of agriculture.

I rally the advocacy for a redirected government thrust in agriculture in the country, especially in Mindanao which is touted for its abundant natural resources.

Genuine agriculture could in deed be a tool to stimulate meaningful peace and development in Mindanao.

Unless our farmers started getting what they deserve from the government, I could not help but believe that the poverty gripping them is calculated by state policy makers and implementors. And insurgency will always have a basis.

In the meantime, let us pray that God guide government people to the proper and just direction. Amen.