By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas

It was because it is what the government should have been doing. Taking care of the needs of impoverished areas in the fringes of this country. The sitios in the vicinity of the boundary of Abra and Mountain Province located in the municipality of Besao on the Mountain Province side and the town of Tubo (Abra) on the other side were definitely crying for development. These became a hotbed of insurgency..
The road is half a century late. The local insurgency has already grown deep roots but not deep enough to be impervious to being stumped out by socioeconomic development—which is what the road is all about. Sure. For what is the insurgency all about as far as those involved are concerned? It is supposed to be a cry for justice or equality in opportunities and the capability to exploit such.
So if the government just stops there after the road has become passable now to vehicles, then it will be just a road. Nothing more. The people in the area should be empowered to exploit the opportunities it offers. How? One way is to assist in their ability to grow economically. Not in terms of doleouts. Just assistance to allow themselves to find ways to progress— economically, and then intellectually and spirituality.
One way of doing this is to provide seed capital for viable cooperatives. Not just measly sums that will just be dissipated into the air. How about a few hundred thousands of pesos which should be paid off in the long term at no interest? How about scholarships for promising kids?
A very important component of these must be enabling the people there to acquire the skills and technological capacity to compete in the 21st century. In Besao for instance, the DOST and other government agencies have been quite active in supposedly supplying some small machineries for the community’s progress but most of them are junk or made in China that conk out on the first day of use.
Many residents on the road’s environs were involved in small scale mining and have been using chemicals like mercury or cyanide or using primitive ways to extract the gold from rocks or the earth. How did I know these? A corporate client of mine had applied to have mining rights over the area and one of their local representatives had seen what was happening there. Of course the opposition to the application was very strong courtesy of the leaders of the insurgents—those who have brains and thus assured themselves of comfortable lives while their “comrades” are suffering in the wild.
The small scale mining will continue there. So why not teach the people the new technology where dangerous chemicals need not be used? Several years ago we had been featuring in this paper some Europeans who had been doing some humanitarian work in Kalinga teaching the people how to extract gold and other minerals without using mercury or cyanide. According to them, it was safe and the percentage of recovery was even higher. Wow! And what did the government do to adopt the technology in pocket mining areas from Besao, Mountain Province to Angelo in Rizal, all the way to Surigao in Mindanao? By the way, go to such areas and you will be surprised by the number of Cordillerans who made some money and settled there. As they say, if there is gold, there are many Igorots. The good thing is, by and large, they are the ones who achieve some economic stability if not progress.
Why is the Beaso-Tubo road very late? Look at the map and it is obvious that road should have been built long ago if politicians wanted to “democratize” progress to outlying areas. Why did it have to take an insurgency for high officials to realize the right thing to do for progress?
As it was and still is, remote towns have to survive on their IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) which is regressive the way it is computed—the rich towns get more while the small towns get nothing more than the crumbs. Former Vice President Jejomar Binay had a point in his campaign for the presidency promise that he would reverse the system so rich towns would get small IRAs while the poor ones in remote areas should get the bigger share. Too bad, fighting Duterte got elected instead.
Another reason for the headline last week was the inability of Sadanga, Mountain Province to implement or accomplish some PAMANA projects. The mayor there is former NBI Regional Director Jose Limmayog. As some of his constituents said, “He had always been here in Baguio, how could he have known how to deal with the people and their problems there?”
I say, “Panyero, be an adviser to your townmates but give the reigns of running the town to those who have been living there all their lives. The wisdom from hands on management is always best. And perhaps you can learn a thing or two from my hometown, Besao. Many roads and school buildings there were built by the people—gratis (galatis to the elderlies there) or no pay for their labor. Many people would even give portions of their land for road widening projects and other similar govern ment initiatives. Yes, the spirit back th
en to sacrifice for the common good was strong. I don’t know if this is still true for I spent most of my adult life in Metro Manila and here in Baguio. “**