By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Beside the spanking new city hall in a location called by residents as NGC (new government center), a big billboard proudly announces: TOP MODEL CITY IN THE PHILIPPINES as the most livable urban center in the Philippines, 2017, by the Manila Times.
That is Bacolod City, endearingly called the City of Smiles. The city is in Negros island comprising of two provinces but belonging to different regions-Negros Occidental (Western Visayas), and Negros Oriental (Central Visayas). I am wondering why one island does not belong to a single region! I guess that is more of politics than geography
Having 13 cities, Negros Occidental has the distinction of having the most number of cities, next only to Rizal province. It is a hotbed of local football and world class boxers. Bacolod is its capital city. Like in Manila, it has its own reclamation site where various business enterprises such as SM now sit. SM store in Cebu is also built in a reclaimed area!
The City of Smiles hosts other big malls such as Robinsons, Gaisano, City Mall, and smaller ones. A large Ayala mall is under construction. Two of its barangay halls that I have seen are big and well-designed. No barangay hall in Baguio or La Trinidad can come close to them. That of Tinongdan barangay hall in Itogon could compare though in terms of size. These are indications of the city’s importance in the Western Visayas region, economically and otherwise. To emphasize such importance, there are at least 4 local daily newspapers circulated in Bacolod on top of the various national dailies. Who says that the print media is becoming out of vogue?
When I was there, such dailies were talking among others, about the possibility of exporting their shrimp to Russia, and the impending start of a direct flight between Clark and Bacolod airports. These are some of the reasons why foreign investors are finding the city a good place to invest in.
Bacolod is the site of the 16th Annual Career Executive Service Conference last November 21-23, attended by about a thousand mostly middle level executives from various government agencies/institutions, including some SUCs, across the country. It is the grouping of practically the future (and the current) government leaders. It was held in the currently best hotel in the city, the L’Fisher Hotel. I happen to be one of those participants, and so with DOTr undersecretary Cesar Chavez who irrevocably resigned a couple of days ago due to mounting criticisms about the state of the Metro Rail Transit in Manila.
Throughout the conference, 60 uniformed and plain clothed PNP personnel were on guard to protect the participants. During our city tour, each of the 8 buses that ferried the participants was escorted by a PNP plainclothesman, while two other police cars and an ambulance followed. That’s how the participants were considered in importance as the future leaders.
It is sugar that made Bacolod (and virtually the entire Negros island) into a bustling city that it is today. It is also the same commodity that cast a pall of gloom to the inhabitants when its price in the world market plummeted so low many local business people lost tons of money. Even lowly workers lost their sources of meager income. The indomitable spirit and the resilience of the Filipino was in full display among the people in Bacolod, dominated of course by the Ilongos, when the city mightily but triumphantly rose from the smoke of that economic downturn.
That episode in their history gave birth to the MassKara festival which had bloomed through the years into one of the most attractive and important festivals in the country. That festival saved the day for the Bacolodeños. Today, the symbol of the festival spawned a great, sustainable source of income for many people in the city throughout the year.
While Bacolod became a chartered city in 1938, it was actually overshadowed by its neighbor, Silay City, up to the second world war due to its harbor. After the war, the seaport was transferred to Bacolod City starting its climb to economic prominence.
Bacolod is currently in a construction boom that two planters I have met were almost complaining of having a hard time hiring people to do farm chores. Many farmers have found a more “stable” job as construction workers. And this is giving rise to another story that is a bane to the environment.
As you move out of the new Bacolod-Silay International airport, your eyes invariably set on sugarcane fields on both sides of the road until you reach the burgeoning commercial districts. That may not be the scenario anymore in the very near future. Those fields, according to reliable sources, have been bought by enterprising business people. Definitely, they will snuff out the sugarcane life out of those green fields and turn them into a quicker source of money but making the environment quietly gasping and crying for a more considerate care. It would be a pity, when that day inevitably comes.
Organic farming festival
The above conference coincided with the 12th Negros Island Organic Farmers festival. Yes, you read it right, not 11, not 13. The island is actually the leading practitioner of organic farming in the Philippines.
I took a break from the above conference to attend this important organic agriculture activity. I am writing about this so concerned organic stakeholders in CAR could take a cue from it.
The festival was a four-day event that included a trade fair for fresh organic produce, seedlings and processed products. The fair was participated in by various stakeholders, especially individual farmers, farmers association, and organic-related enterprises.
The festival was a venue for recognizing outstanding organic practitioners, organic farmer associations, focal persons, LGUs, and other stakeholders. It also included various demos such as muscovado processing, organic feed formulation, cooking, and even music road shows showcasing local talents. The usual relevant lectures on selected topics were in abundance.
What lent much importance to the festival is the presence of Dr. Zou Zejiang, President of Asia Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement, who was the guest of honor, and Dr. Jennifer Chang, Executive Dir. of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement, Asia (IFOAM-ASIA) who was just elected as Vice President of IFOAM itself. She is the first Asian to be elected to that position. Another resource person present was Dr. Janet Chen from the International Agricultural Center in Taichung, Taiwan.
Dr. Zou was so impressed with the festival that he unhesitatingly stated that it is the largest of its kind in Asia, if not the world. “We should show the world that we are leading in this organic system”, he said as he praised the local practitioners as well as the organizers of the event.
Also gracing the occasion was DA undersecretary Puyat who dutifully informed the large audience during the opening program that the Philippines is number 5 in the world as to the number of farmer practitioners of organic agriculture, and ranked 28 as to the total number of hectares (234,300has) being tilled.
In my visit to the 100 or so exhibit/fair booths, it was apparent that organic farming is already that widespread in Negros Island. They are already organically-growing at least 60 crops including grain crops, legumes, vegetables such as cabbage, radish, lettuce, chayote and pechay among others, fruits, root crops, sugar crop and even heirloom rice. Organically-produced animals were not on display.
One fruit on display that caught my attention was a fruit not common in Luzon or Mindanao. They call it batuan. It is green when mature and harvested, the size of a small potato tuber but more of a flat side, rather than plump. They describe it as souring fruit, which means they use it as kamias or tamarind in menus. It is used in two popular local recipes called KBL (kadios-baboy-langka), and cansi (local bulalo with a distinct soury flavor). It is also being used for candies, etc.
I met and interviewed Ms. Dolores Ceralbo, the lady president of the Pandanon Integrated Balangon Farmers Association (PIBFA). Although balangon is a type of banana, the association is actually organically producing animals and various crops including 38 hectares of sugarcane. They have a total membership of 22 farmers. They are farming in the mid-elevation areas of the town of Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental.
Their story could be a source of inspiration.
-To be continued-
