Did the Adivay achieve its goals
One of the goals of the Adivay should be for the Benguet people to acquire cutting edge technology applicable to their situation in an agricultural province. A way of doing this should have been the citation or proper acknowledgment of agricultural projects in the province that became successful because of such. Whether or not this was achieved can of course be seen in the coming months. But if the past half a century is something to go by, it is highly doubtful a quantum jump has been achieved through Adivay in the advancement of agriculture as far as application of technology in day-to-day farming in the province is concerned.
A case in point is a barangay just a few minutes drive from Benguet State University (BSU) in the capital town. Guava fruits there are falling down and rotting on the ground every time the fruit is in season. People there don’t know how to make guava jam nor do they appreciate the fact they could make some amount from such. Perhaps food technology is not so familiar to them. But BSU is just nearby where they could get all the knowledge they need to process their agricultural products for their own benefit.
Then there is the role of the province’s politicians. What had they achieved towards this end of making the Benguet people become technologically y competitive in the operation of their farms, in the processing of their produce and in marketing these to optimize their profits? Or are its politicians so traditional as politicians can be in this part of the world where the most favored recipients of funds are infrastructure projects as the kickbacks from these are the biggest and easier to collect? It appears there is no indication that this is not the case.
How about in the appreciation and promotion of its indigenous culture where bad outside influences—like shabu and other illegal drugs— are shunned and only duly proved good outside practices are encouraged and promoted?
Perhaps in this respect, the leaders of the province failed miserably. Benguet is one of the biggest producer of marijuana and so many of its people were the victims of extrajudicial killings of late. This means that its inhabitants contributed so many names in the list of PDu30 of drug users or pushers who should be hunted down and punished with extreme prejudice.**
