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03.22.08Ask Her
So Gloria is spending time in the Cordilleras again. Today she will be visiting the strawberry farms of La-Trinidad to look into “plight of upland farmers whose produce have been affected by blight due to temperature fluctuations”.
Hah. Truth be told, the weather can be blamed only to a limited extent when it comes to the plight of upland farmers. The greater disaster would be Gloria’s policy of uncritically embracing and advocating for globalization. She opened up the local vegetable market without putting in place any sufficient safety nets that could help our farmers compete against imported vegetables.
In addition, aside from the legal importation going on, there’s a much bigger volume of illegally imported vegetables that is making it impossible for farmers to earn a decent living. Cabbages being sold at P3/kilo? Or carrots at P3.50? This is a scandal. At the center of this scandal would be Gloria’s husband profiting from the illegal importation going on.
Cordillera leaders should be asking Gloria about these things.
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02.23.08Max and Gloria Sitting in a Tree
Huh, Governor Dalog can we stop this boot licking already. It is unbecoming of you. Gloria is a cheat and a corrupt “President”. Do not use the barangay officials of Mt. Province to prop her up.
By the way, are anyone of you wondering why the government is not doing anything to stop the continued smuggling of vegetables? A very reliable source told us that the reason for this is that Gloria’s husband, Mike Arroyo, gets the bulk of the grease money that smugglers give to Customs officials. What about that?
The farmers of Bauko, the Governor’s hometown, and the wider Benguet-Mt Province vegetable belt are losing their livelihood because of Mike Arroyo and yet the Mt. Province governor ass-kisses Gloria. Where’s the pride, Guv?
I think I said somewhere that Gloria should be credited for giving some attention to the Cordilleras but this should not blind us to her corruption. More importantly, we should not use barangay officials to prop up a corrupt regime. They are there to serve their barangay constituents not Gloria and her thieving husband.
Click below to read what raised my hackles hehe.
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02.20.08All About Chicken
If the Department of Agriculture (DA) is correct, we may soon be singing “Bye Bye Baby” to the native chicken. According to this report, “native chickens in the Cordillera, Philippines, are disappearing quickly. The region’s Department of Agriculture is concerned that the breed may soon become extinct.”
So who’s to blame for the native chicken going the way of their more famous cousin, the dodo? Blame the fact that not a lot of us are raising native chicken anymore and that we’ve become dependent on commercially raised poultry. Read the article here.
Speaking of commercial chicken, did you know that “cull chicken” is full of antibiotics and hormones and is thus bad for your health? Kind of scary considering that “cull” has effectively replaced the native breed as the Cordillera’s primary source of white meat. The Northern Dispatchreports that said antibiotics and hormones “may cause cancer and other ailments for the consumer.” Read it here.
Seems like we are killing ourselves softly by eating “cull”. Kasla pinikpikan.
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02.08.08Quote of the Day
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If you compare the vegetables from China and the ones we produce in the Philippines, the ones from China are bigger, greener and packaged well. [Many] Chinese farmers do not use fertilizers but they produce so much and we want to find out how they do it without using fertilizers.
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– Dr. Charles Cheng, a chapter member of the Association for Philippine-China Understanding.
Cheng said his group had asked the [Benguet] provincial government to help it send at least 10 farmers to China to learn new vegetable farming technology. More at the Inquirer.
We agree. We can keep on ranting about the government’s failure to effectively control vegetable importation but farmers also need to improve their produce if they are to be competitive in the market.
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01.23.08Photo of the Day: CHARM Project
What is CHARM-P (Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project)? Is it the success story that some of its supporters say it is? Or is it just one of those foreign funded projects that were quite successful in producing glossy brochures and voluminous reports (complete with vision, mission, goals, and bar graphs, and pie charts) but had very little impact in Cordillera communities?
Note: Click picture to expand. To read the article “Charm Offensive” by Rita Festin, click here.
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01.21.08Governor Fongwan: We’ll Export Vegetables to Japan
Thanks to “Anonymous” who alerted us about this news. I’m not optimistic that it will happen (i.e., the Cordilleras exporting vegetables to Japan, etc.) but I’m ready to be pleasantly surprised. I’m sure you are too :-)
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Gov says Benguet ready to export vegetables
Desiree Caluza
Philippine Daily InquirerBAGUIO CITY—Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan said his province’s farmers are ready to export their vegetables to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong this year.
Fongwan said President Macapagal-Arroyo wants to enhance the province’s vegetable production after allotting P10 million for the full operation of the cold chain to preserve and ensure the freshness and quality of the local produce.
He said buyers from Japan sought broccoli grown in Benguet after the vegetable passed Japanese quality standards. He said several companies in Japan wanted the initial shipments this month.
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