Re-enlisted

Yes I have Re-enlisted. Once again, I am joining the B-Meg Fiestahan and B-Meg Caravan Teams as they go all over the country to familiarize and educate poor or disadvantaged Filipinos on how to be a better and a successful Backyard Hog Raiser. No, I have not gone full time into agriculture; this for me is my advocacy and my PSRP or Personal Social Responsibility Program.

 It’s something I pray for every year, look forward to doing, and involves traveling to an average of 24 to 26 provinces, spending two to three days per destination.  With 52 weeks in a year, that means we are on the road or somewhere for half of 2018. You never know what to expect, but on average I come face to face with 1,000 to 1,500 participants, some starting from zero knowledge to practitioner level. That’s approximately 24,000 Filipinos every year! Some times you travel in comfort and luxury but there have been times when you get caught in a storm, sleeping in what is literally a roadside bedroom where passing trucks drive by close enough for their headlights to illuminate your room and for you to hear Aegis singing “Basang basa sa Ulan” on their stereo! 

Often we fly to a destination but we also do a lot of driving, the longest of which was a 10-hour drive to Tuguegarao because our flight was unceremoniously cancelled the day before our training program. On one boat trip, we actually took the last trip before the ports got shut down due to bad weather! When you have a thousand or so audience, you hit the road, Jack!

Besides loving the outdoors and discovering the beauty of the Philippines, my greatest motivation for being a “volunteer” speaker and trainer for B-Meg feeds is that the knowledge the B-Meg team shares and imparts at every Fiestahan or Caravan event increases the chances for success of backyard hog raisers. I have always felt strongly about the disadvantage of poor Filipinos who live in the provinces or remote areas who have no access to information or useful and practical training in their chosen livelihood. They can save all they want, borrow money from their OFW relatives, but in the end their “ignorance” or inexperience in the livelihood or business ultimately spells their loss and being debt-ridden.

You might say people who don’t have the know-how, should never get into a business. That of course is assuming you live in a perfect world with lots of opportunities and easy choices. But out there in the provinces where the average educational attainment hovers between elementary and 2nd year high school, people grab whatever they can and try to make a go for it, saying “Bahala na ang Diyos.” That’s why I often tell critics don’t criticize something you have not tried to improve. That’s exactly what the B-Meg team works at in every venue not just by giving experience-based seminars, but also providing access to materials such as brochures, medicines, different types of feeds as well as connecting participants to a support group of field technicians based in the area where we conduct training programs.

I share this at the beginning of the New Year just in case you’re one of those who want to start up your own PSRP or Personal Social Responsibility Program. You can start by asking what you feel strongly about, or perhaps like me, observing what’s missing, lacking, or the great disadvantage that prevents people from making it! There are many choices out there but you will eventually learn that you can’t engage in something you are not good at or not passionate about. I love trees, wanted to plant so many trees around Barrio Kapitolyo and Lipa, I even spoke with Senator Ralph Recto to promote planting pine trees in Lipa, Batangas so we can feel and smell like Baguio City. But I was not really passionate enough to be a nagger, so nothing really developed.

It could also be something you have a need for or directly and greatly benefit from, like the Star Tollways Exit ramp to Balete –Lipa that was non-existent, until many of us living in the area got together and simply “campaigned” and nagged the right people to build the exit. As a result, thousands of motorists in the area no longer experience the traffic caused by industrial parks in the town of Malvar where the exit used to be. Try enlisting in a movement, a corporate social responsibility program, or even a church, school or government project in need of volunteers. You can surely make a difference, surely benefit on so many levels. But first, you have to enlist or maybe, go back and re-enlist.

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While on the topic of agricultural knowhow, I would like to call the attention of Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol regarding the need to urgently push for a bill or presidential proclamation that would protect pre-existing farms and agricultural lands from being outlawed or zoned out by local governments in cahoots with property developers. Someone has to champion such a cause and push for such a law because many farm lots are now under threat from unilateral armchair land conversions.

I doubt very much if the Duterte administration could champion an honest to goodness “Land Use Act” but it could easily roll out a law or Executive Order that would exempt and protect pre-existing farms both small and large from being phased out or pushed out due to unabated and irrational urbanization in the provinces. If a farm complies with health and environment guidelines under the supervision and assessment of the Department of Agriculture (only), said farms must be free from any acts intending to close or harass them. Legislated protection will insure the survival of farms. If urbanization is the aim, then the LGU must be required to pay through the nose to subsidize the relocation of pre-existing farms because they are legitimate businesses and must be acquired as such and not merely outlawed by politicians!

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