feb. 2005

Increased tax for expanding export bananas pushed

Increasing the taxes of export bananas is being pushed in Compostela Valley which is seeing its expansion since the recent years.

This developed as banana companies are reportedly wrapping up in their studies in further expanding to the vast hinterlands of New Bataan and in the barangays of Nabunturan.

The province has about 7,979 hectares of export banana plantation based on report of the Comval Provincial Agricultural Office. The province is second in rank in export banana production throughout the country after Davao del Norte. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics reported that Comval has produced 600,500 metric tons of the commodity in 2003

Gov. Jose Caballero said that the tax due from the industry was just too small at P1,025 per hectare per year compared to the estimated gross earning of P.5 million in the same area per year.

The P1,025 tax due for export banana was still in 2003, a 63.65 increase from P625.40 in 2000 assessment,

He pushed that the tax levying on the commodity should be adjusted not only to bring in revenues but more so to compensate accompanying environmental costs and to compensate from the loss of lands devoted to staple food production.

He said that the banana expansion brings land conversion affecting the province’s volume of corn and rice production level and pricing stability. He said that the province is paying in terms of responding to pollution and calamities contributed by banana expansions.

However, the governor acknowledged on the greater economic multiplier that the industry has been generating to the province while unemployment and lack of livelihood characterized the province’s countrysides (cha monforte).

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feb. 2005

More LGU social services than infras urged

More social services than the oft-preferred infrastructure projects are being expected from local governments units in line with the national government’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

DILG Comval provincial director Susan Pantero said that while provision of infrastructures to communities remain to be attractive among local chief executives and officials, it is much better if LGUs embark on giving more social services to the people in the light of the present administration’s poverty reduction thrusts under the MDG.

She said that while some infrastructures like the access roads to barangays support the delivery of social services the latter need to be stressed by local officials to better contribute in the realization of the country’s MDG.

The Philippine Government is a signatory of the United Nation’s MDG which centrally targets marked reduction of poverty, enhancement of children welfare and gender advancement. Adopted in 2000 by community of nations, the Millennium Declaration spelled out specific targets and milestones for eliminating extreme poverty by 2015.

Consequently, the Philippines became the recipient of assistance from United Nations Multi Donor Programme–3 (UNMDPD). In Mindanao is implemented through the Mindanao Economic Development Council, which fully supports the localization of the MDG.

Meanwhile, Pantero bared that DILG has also its thrust of pushing for replication of best practices and replicable models and experiences in governance from an LGU to others.

She said that as of last year they have identified in Compostela Valley at least three innovative programs like the trailblazing women organizing and empowerment of the provincial government, the material recovery facility project and barangayan civic action program of the Maragusan municipal government.

Before her Comval assignment, Pantero was the DILG provincial director in Davao del Sur. She replaced Liborio Diana, who was transferred to head the Davao del Norte DILG office. She assumed office last Oct 14 (cha monforte)

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feb 2005

Comval’s abaca finds its way to Mati

Compostela Valley has been producing abaca at a volume greatly more than what the official statistics has been scoring for Davao del Norte in years and it finds its way to the buyers in Mati, Davao del Sur.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) Compostela Valley office recently bared that there was a possible mix up in the statistics that has been giving Davao del Norte 240 metric tons and Comval 240 metric tons of abaca production volume

BAS Comval operations center head Virginia Celestra said that on the contrary the figures should be reversed in favor to Comval.

She said that BAS is clarifying the statistical mix up with the Fiber Industry Development Authority which was known after finding that there has been marked increases of abaca production in the recent years in the New Bataan villages, Barangay Mainit in Nabunturan and in the upland Paloc and Araibo areas in Maragusan.

Celestra revealed that the commodity has been going to the markets in Mati, Davao Oriental not via downhill to Comval mainland but passing via the alternate yet mountainous Araibo route.

Once in the 60s abaca plantation flourished in Comval mainland valley until there was a market slump in the 70s. In the recent years, renewed abaca production in the province has been noted.

The BAS provincial office started operating in the capital town of Nabunturan five years ago following the birth of Comval on March 8, 1998.

It gathers agriculture-related provincial statistics such as retail and prevailing prices of agricultural, fishery and livestock products in weekly basis, and farmgate prices of palay, corn and other commodities in month basis, and conduct seasonal surveys pertaining prices, production volume, hectarage, agricultural labor, among others. (cha monforte)

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April 13, 2005

Community partnership vital in anti-malaria fight in Comval Province

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

Persons afflicted by the age-old malaria disease are decreasing in Compostela Valley helped in greater way by increased vigilance of communities especially those in remote hinterlands.

Michael August Canarias, provincial coordinating officer of the United Nations Global Fund project that combats malaria disease, bared that malaria-stricken persons drastically dropped in the province down to slightly over 100 from a high 300 two years ago.

In 2001 the province ranked No. 8 in top 10 malaria endemic provinces in the country.

Canarias attributed the decrease to the active partnership of communities identified to have malaria cases. He said that the Global Fund Malaria Component project campaigns which started in the province in 2002 have resulted to the higher awareness of identified communities on malaria from spotting symptoms and identification of breeding places of Plasmodium falciparum- the most common carrier in the country-to treatment and taking up of community prevention measures.

He identified those remote hinterlands that have slow-flowing creeks and rivers which are prone to be hit by the disease. He said that most of the cases last year were in Casoon village in Laak town.

The Global Fund’s local malaria eradication program is anchored at the Comval Provincial Health Office which coordinates with rural health units in municipalities.

In the province, the fund has already infused over P10 million of medical supplies and mobilizations that include distribution of 15,800 chemically treated mosquito nets, medicines, microscopes, insecticides, clean-up and treatment drives, organizing and trainings of barangay microscopists and health workers.

Canarias said that the project has already organized 92 barangay malaria management teams and municipal action committees under the health boards. Barangay health workers have also been trained rapid diagnostic test in identifying malaria cases. There are already nine trained barangay microscopists who could work with BHWs in the fight against malaria.

The country's $11-million Global Fund share was accessed from the United Nations by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement and implemented by the Dept. of Health through provincial health offices. The fund also funds for the fight against AIDS and TB besides malaria. It targets to reduce the malaria morbidity by 70% and mortality by 50% in the 25 priority provinces at the end of 2008.

ENDEMIC AREAS

In 2001 the Dept of Health reported that although the control of malaria in the Philippines in the 1990s had significantly reduced cases by 60%, from 89,047 in 1990 to 36,596 in 2000, still it remains endemic in 65 of the 78 provinces, 760 of the 1,600 municipalities and 9,345 of the 42,979 barangays nationwide. It also estimated that at risk of malaria nationwide are 11 million Filipinos mainly living in the remote hard-to-reach areas and the need for at least P100 to sustain malaria control efforts.

Mostly found to be endemic areas in the country are those along provincial and regional borders, frontier areas, places populated by indigenous cultural groups and areas with socio-political conflicts.

In that year, Compostela Valley ranked number 8 in the top 10 provinces in terms of the number of malaria cases, while its contiguous provinces of Agusan del Sur and Davao del Norte ranked 3rd and 7th, respectively. Other provinces included in the category were Palawan (1st), Tawi-tawi (2nd), Sulu (4th), Davao del Sur (5th), Isabela (6th), Apayao (9th) and Cagayan (10th).

The same contiguous provinces in 2003 ranking belonged to the worst 25 Category A provinces where there are more than 1,000 malaria cases per year or where the malaria situation had worsened. Fourteen provinces in Mindanao were in the same category accounting 53 percent of the country's cases, while provinces in Luzon and Visayas accounted 46 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

WORLDWIDE FIGHT

Despite that malaria, one of oldest diseases afflicting mankind, has been fought by many governments for centuries, it still persists and in fact recurs with a worldwide prevalence of 300-500 million clinical cases each year.

The United Nations reported that the malaria is still a public health problem in more than 90 countries inhabited by a total of some 400 million, 40 percent of the world’s population.

Mortality caused by the disease is estimated to be over 1 million deaths each year a vast majority of which hitting among young children in Africa, especially in remote rural areas with poor access to health services. More than 90% of all malaria cases are in sub-Saharan Africa.

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April 13, 2005

Only half of region’s LGUs well prepared to meet disasters

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

About only a half of the 52 local government units in Region XI are functionally prepared to meet head on natural and man-made disasters that may strike in their respective areas.

The Office of Civil Defense (XI) regional director Carmelito Lupo bared this assessment Wednesday during first day of the two-day disaster management training for the municipal and provincial officials in Compostela Valley held in Nabunturan.

Governor Jose Caballero initiated the activity to further strengthen the province’s disaster preparedness capability.

Lupo said that the OCD (XI) with the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) said that while disaster coordinating councils (DCCs) are already organized in all of the region’s LGUs but in terms of functionality only a half of them are active and could better meet disasters.

He said that for this they have been coordinating LGUs to enhance their disaster management programs.

He added that they have been pushing good models and best practices in preparing and meeting disasters down to the municipalities and most importantly to the barangays which he said are the first line of defense in times of emergency.

"It is in the barangays where the action is and barangay disaster coordinating councils (BDCCs) should be organized," Lupo said.

Besides the five-percent calamity funds that could be tapped as manadated by the Local Government Code, BDCCs must also have plans and stockpile of logistics and their capabilities enhanced, he added.

During the first day of the training, resource speakers from the Philippine Atmospheric and Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivocs) and Mines and Geo-Sciences gave inputs on various types of disasters such as rain-induced landslides and flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami and particular geo-hazards and calamities experienced in various parts of the country.

OCD and RDCC resource speakers also give inputs on the Philippine country’s disaster management system and the national DCC’s current four-point agenda on disaster preparedness which are the upgrading of the Pagasa and Phivocs’ forecasting capability, focusing of public information campaigns on disaster preparedness, cascading of capability building for LGUs in identified vulnerable areas and strengthening of the mechanisms for government-private sector partnership in relief and rehabilitation.

Phivocs-Davao City station chief Engr. Desiderio Cabanlit said that disaster preparedness is a must concern of all considering that the country has been considered as the most disaster-prone throughout the world as it is located in the volcano-laden Circum-Pacific Rim of Fire while it is most visited by tropical cyclones which averaged 20 yearly based on the Pagasa record in the previous years.

He bared that Comval is within a seismologically active belt given that it is traversed by the Philippine Fault Line that stretches from Luzon to Davao Oriental and hosts the only Davao Region’s active volcano, the Mount Leonard which is located at New Leyte, Maco town.

The Mt. Leonard crater is believed to have formed what is now known as the Lake Leonard, the region’s smallest highland lake. A few geological studies said that the lake had been formed out of the sunken crater of the volcano that erupted thousands of years ago. The lake is teemed with freshwater fishes. It is one of the eco-tourism spots of Comval.

The Phivocs listed in its April 2002 primer "Volcanoes of the Philippines" Mt. Leonard as active with unknown historical eruption unlike to what has been recorded to other active volcanoes in the country since the 15th century. Phivocs though reckoned that Mt. Leonard had its last eruption or known activity sometime 1,800 years ago.

Other resource speakers of the training were Pagasa-Davao City personnel Jerry Pedrico, MGB (XI) specialist Dianne Christine Velasco and OCD (XI) officer Edgar Salanio. The NDCC chief operations officer Maj. Gen. Glen Rabonza (Ret) is expected to join on the second day.

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April 16, 2005

With Phils as most disaster-prone country on earth, NDCC launches disasters forecasting modernization program

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

With the Philippines reputed as most-disaster prone on earth, the National Disaster Coordinating Council is moving everything to upgrade the country's disaster forecasting capacity.

National Disaster Coordinating Concil (NDCC) operations chief retired Maj. Gen. Glenn Rabonza said that the national govenrment has been making technological upgrades to improve the disaster forecasting capacity of the Philippine Atmospheric and Geophysical and Services Administration (Pagasa) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivocs).

Rebonza bared this Thursday, April 14 during the culmination of the two-day disaster preparedness training for local executives held in Nabunturan town. It was sponsored by the provincial government in collaboration with the Office of Civil Defense (XI) and the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC-XI).

He said that the national government has all the more sped up its upgrading efforts for the country's weather and volcanology authorities in the wake of the local disaster experienced in Aurora and Quezon provinces and the tsunamis that badly hit Asia recently.

He said that after the Aurora and Quezon landslides stuck killing over 1,000 persons there were certain criticisms that Pagasa had no accurate warning system like in failing to analyze the effect of the volume of rains to rained areas especially following continuous heavy downpour.

"To some extent these were true," he told training participants composed mostly of the members of provincial and municipal coordinating councils.

He bared that at present Pagasa has already installed six sophisticated dupler radars and rain gauges in various locations in the country to beef up its early warning capacity. Four of the dupler radars were provided by the Japanese government.

Dupler radars could tell how heavy the forthcoming rain is, while rain gauges could measure up volume of the rains.

Rabonza added that besides the facilities and Pagasa's forging of close partnership with modern weather stations worldwide, the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with the Philippine government has embarked into a P1-billion modernization program for the Phivocs.

He said that program already put up 64 marine stations linked to satellites which could enable scientists to get real-time geological data such as the fault movement or earthquake starting on sea.

The upgrading of the forecasting capacity of Pagasa and Phivocs is part of the present administration's four- point action agenda. The other agenda are the launching of strategic public information campaigns, cascading of capability buildings for LGUs in identified vulnerable areas and the strengthening of mechanisms for government-private sector partnership in relief and rehabilitation.

Rebonza also informed that the NDCC has been forging agreements with various sectors and groups such as the DepEd and CHED on the possible inclusion of disaster preparedness subjects in school curricula, as well as partnership with trauma treatment organizations and the governors' league. NDCC has also been organizing disaster response drills and trainings nationwide, it was learned.

"Our objective is to create a national consciousness, a culture of preparedness as against the prevailing culture of reaction, of reacting only when disasters and calamities already come, he said.

Gov. Jose Caballero, on the other hand, said that Comval is one among the most flood-prone provinces in the country as reported by the environmentalist Haribon foundation.

He added that while disasters could not be prevented, the people's preparedess capability is a must concern especially of local governance.

In one United Nations report, the Philippines is considered as the most disaster-prone country throughout the world. Besides that it is located in the volcano-laden Circum-Pacific Rim of Fire and has its own volcanoes, fault zones and trenshces, the country is also most visited by tropical cyclones which averaged 20 yearly based on the Pagasa record.

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Microlenders compete stiffly in Comval villages

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

Microlending organizations compete stiffly in Compostela Valley’s barangays and villages that some of them at times lend small loans to the same borrowers.

"There’s income in lending business, that’s why microlenders thrive and compete against each other," says Susan Ayco, project manager of the Savings and Credit with Education (SCWE), the micro lending service of the Nabunturan Integrated Cooperative, a pioneer multi-million cooperative in the province.

She said that it is already happening at present when two or more microlenders serve the same borrowers thus endangering the loan as they now have the burden of paying two or more loans.

NICO’s SCWE service was jumpstarted by the Credit Union Empowerment and Strengthening-Philippines (CUES-Philippines) which extended technical and financial assistance for the program’s administrative expenses for two years beginning Sept. 2000. NICO has already infused P7.1 million credit as of February this year serving over 2,300 women beneficiaries from a total of 132 groups.

There are at least fourteen entities that are competing to serve Comval’s market of borrowers in the province’s mainland municipalities which offer group or community-based micro loans.

Some of the microlenders are cooperatives, others are banks, nongovernment foundations or private lending agencies. Microlenders seize on credit investigations¸ community-based organizing, pre-loan education activities or deployment of field collectors to achieve efficient collection of payments from borrowers.

Identified to be offering said type of loans are Rural Bank of Montevista, Network Bank, Green Bank, Enterprise Bank, People’s Bank, King Cooperative, KMBI, KMTK, MIDF, Tagum Cooperative, NRBL, Jovan and Triple D. Some others came as far as Caraga region to do microlending business in Comval.

NICO’s SCWE loans is anchored on organizing solidarity groups, and savings and credit associations which avail of the group loan and distribute it to the women members who guarantee each other’s individual loans. "Once a member defaults from her loan, the rest of the members of the group assume the responsibility of paying the loan balance,"Ayco explained.

A solidarity group is comprised of usually 4 to 6 women members wanting to establish or augment their livelihood business. Solidarity groups comprise the savings and loan associations to which NICO extends the SCWE loans. The association, usually composed of 25 borrowers, releases the loan to the members and serves as the loan’s second guarantor.

It is also the association that maintains the book of accounts and collects members’ loan repayments during weekly meetings and then deposits the collection either direct to NICO in Nabunturan or to NICO’s depository in other areas.

Members were first extended a minimum of P1,500 and maximum of P15,000 loan but these were doubled last year as competitors offered higher amount, Ayco said.

The loan is payable for a period of four months with 5 percent interest per month. Most of the loans were availed by women in the barangays than those in town poblacions. Women’s livelihood included sari-sari store operations, making of native pastries and delicacies, buying and selling of food items, clothes and other items and others. The loan is not intended for farming.

SCWE members though could later avail more than the amount depending on their track record of payment and the profitability of their livelihood business.

The project is proving to be successful after five years of implementation as the total loan exposure has only met a delinquency rate of 8.9 percent or conversely the scheme is 91.1 percent collection efficient thus far, Ayco added.

She also observed that other microlenders followed suit following SCWE's feasible collection experience. But she said some of the microlenders are offering hgiher loans that promise small interest rate like 3 percent but are actually making a lot of pre-paid deductions such as membership, redemption fees, insurances and retention fund that result to a reduced net amount of loan.

The SCWE loan has already covered the Comval’s mainland municipalities of Mawab, Nabunturan, Montevista, Monkayo, Compostela and New Bataan, and the upland Masaraline communities of Maco town. Lately NICO has established a branch in the highland Maragusan and started extending its SCWE loans to the rural women in far-flung villages in town.

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April 21, 2005

Some sectors not happy with lumad rep in Comval SB

By Cha Monforte

COMPOSTELA Valley (Rural Urban News)- Call it sourgraping, as some sectors are just not happy with a sitting down of a lumad representative to the municipal council who would now have to elbow with the same rights and privileges with the elected councilors.

An elected official, who refused to be named, said that he felt not happy with the recent installation of Mansaka Datu Daniel Pagantupan as pushed by New Bataan Mayor Margarito Cualing saying that it was unfair to the elected councilors who had spent a lot during the last polls just to be able to sit in the Sangguniang Bayan.

He said that it appeared that Pagantupan was so lucky that the local government spent for the consultations with various tribal groups leading to his installation.

He recalled that from even before the start of the electoral campaign elected councilors were already spending money up to their oathtaking rite and thanksgiving party to where they still had to contribute funds.

But Shirley Iguianon, provincial officer of the National Commission on Indigenous People-Compostela Valley, in an interview, was quick to say that the NCIP appreciates the indigenous people (IP) representation to New Bataan sanggunian.

Pantupan's installation has been billed by Cualing as unprecedented, the first throughout Mindanao if not in the country. Even Compostela Valley’s 1st District Rep. Manuel "Way Kurat" Zamora, who came late during the installation rite, raced to claim that throughout the country the IP’s representation to the SB was first to happen right in his district.

The local sanggunian adopted Resolution No. 11 enacting Municipal Ordinance No. 03, series of 2004 which gave IP representation to the council. The same ordinance was confirmed by the provincial board in its Ordinance No. 27, series of 2004.

Reports said that Cualing had earlier initiated consultative meetings among IPs to draw up the mechanics in selecting the sector’s representative.

On Feb. 18 this year the mayor accordingly hosted an IP consultative meeting which elected Pagapatan as the IP representative to the town’s council.

Other Comval mayors were said to be not keen on replicating Cualing’s advocacy.

But the interior department was unhappy either as both of its provincial and regional offices were unsure of the legality of Cualing’s appointment act.

DILG provincial director Susan Pontero noted that Cualing might have opened instead a Pandora Box of more troubles stating that the council representation of other sectors has still no enabling laws at present.

The DILG representatives during the Pagapatan’s installation were only acting as observers.

Pontero had already reported the case to the DILG (XI) legal counsel who subsequently referred the matter to DILG national office in Manila.

Iguianon confirmed that the NCIP has not yet come up an agency’s memorandum circular providing for the implementing rules and regulations on the IPRA’s provision of assuring IP’s representation in policy-making bodies in governance.

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May 5, 2005

Compromise agreement with delinquent taxpayers stepped up in Comval to increase tax collection

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

The Compostela Valley provincial government is stepping up its tax collection efforts by forging compromise agreements with property owners which condone payments of penalties of their tax-delinquent properties.

The local revenue-raising moratorium on penalty payment legislated by the Comval provincial board in Provincial Tax Ordinance No. 03 enacted last Sept. 29, 2004. It will last until December 2006.

This year’s penalty condonation is the second after the first moratorium scheme proved to be successful in shooting up the real property tax (RPT) collection in 2002

The RPT remains to be the major source of locally generated taxes of the provincial government which shares 35 percent of the total RPT collection.

This time the covered properties whose owners can avail of penalty condonation are those undeclared properties subject of back taxes and those declared but tax-delinquent until 2004.

Properties tied in court cases are not covered by the scheme, Comval provincial treasurer bared.

Under the present scheme, delinquent property owners can forge compromise agreements with the provincial treasurer that condone their monthly 2-percent penalty payment provided they would pay at least 20 percent of the total amount of delinquent RPT.

The 80 percent balance will be installed either monthly or quarterly within six months to two years depending on the amount of tax delinquency.

For properties delinquent of P5,000 or less, the balance will be paid for 6 months or 2 quarters; for P5,001 to P25,000 delinquency it will paid in 12 months or 4 quarters; and for P25,001 and above it will be paid in 24 months or 8 quarters.

The date of compromise agreement commences upon the giving of the 20 percent downpayment, Razul said as she enjoined involved property owners in Comval to visit their municipal treasurers for the computation of RPT of their landholdings.

In 2002 when the first penalty moratorium was implemented, the RPT collection throughout the province in that year soared to P60.4 million from P43.8 million in 2001 or a 38-percent increase, which recorded the highest from the range of 3 to 12 percent increase in the previous years starting from the Comval’s creation in 1998.

Under the Local Government Code, the municipalities and barangays also share the RPT by 40 percent and 25 percent, respectively. (PNA)

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Export banana lands assessed the highest in Comval’s revision of property assessment

By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News

The assessment levels and values for lands planted with export bananas recorded the highest among lands devoted to other crops, plants and agricultural uses in the recently revised assessment of fair market values of lands including buildings and other structures in Compostela Valley.

Comval provincial assessor Armando Atake said that the assessment of land devoted to export bananas has increased greatly by 82.4 percent compared to the last general revision of assessment of property values and classifications in 2002 due to the technological improvement in the banana production and its rapid expansion in the recent years.

He said that in the past government assessors considered only 1,500 banana stems in a hectare compared to the improved production density at present where a hectare could already accommodate an average of 1,950 stems.

He said that the assessment for export banana land and improvements is just fair considering the current expansion and profitability of the industry owing to the increased demand of the world market for the product and the increases of the dollar exchange rate.

He said that in the provincial assessment revision activities starting August last year he learned of many investors going to invest for export bananas and many landowners wanting to open their lands for the commodity in many areas in the province.

Moreover, he said he observed the modernizing production technology for export bananas like the presence of post-harvest refrigeration facilities, improved product packaging and mechanized processes.

"If the export banana industry is not profitable, why is it expanding and improving?" Atake said.

The province has at least 8,012 hectares of export banana land engaged by various groups of landowner-grower groups or CARP beneficiaries under production contract with big banana firms such as DOLE_Stanfilco Phils., Marsman Drysdale Farm, Dizon Farms, and MD Rio Vista Agri-Ventures.

The general revision of assessment of land values is conducted every three years. Assessed values, fair market values and assessment levels in percentages are factors in the computation of taxes. Already, three general revisions have been made in Comval since its creation in 1998. (CHA MONFORTE)

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April 28, 2005

Endangered cathedral-like cave explored in Comval

By Cha Monforte

The Provincial Tourism Office of Compostela Valley explored Wednesday, April 27 a rather dead cathedral-like cave and a still living cave at the hills of Barangay Salvacion in Mawab town.

A spelunking team headed by provincial tourism officer Eden David in cooperation with the Salvacion barangay officials reached the location of endangered caves after two hours of trekking over steep ravines from Salvacion.

Barangay Salvacion is only two kms west from the Mawab Cliff section of the Philippine-Japan Davao-Butuan National Highway.

The first cave, which though still considered living by cave enthusiasts, lacks water spouts in its interiors. It has about two-meter triangular horizontal passage with at least two deep tiers of three-meter descent in its first 20-meter length before the channel narrows outwardly to a man-size hole. The muddy flooring in that semi-end portion prevented the team from going farther.

The team went inside spelunking in coarse and wavy floor formation which has small water draining in between and saw a clear water pool catchment in between the 20-meter length. The cave has mostly bigger whitish stalactites formation especially after the first and second descents. Water dews signifying life could only be seen at the extreme semi-end walls.

After the first cave which is unnamed yet by the barangay folk, the team proceeded to the other cave that looked to be already dead by the complete absence of water inside its interiors.

"It might be dead but its big interior hall which has a mosaic of grayish stalactites hanging in its high ceiling and the bright ray of light from the sky make us feel we’re inside a cathedral," muses Antonio Salarda Jr, the videographer of the team.

It took the team half an hour of difficult deep trail to reach the dead cathedral-like cave from the first cave. The second cave could be approached taking the downstream flow of the Salvacion river as a guide from small falls and lagoon located in between the trail. The river’s water is fresh and potable and in fact it is the source of water of Salvacion villages.

The second cave has small semi-circular opening, but after a three-meter distance the passage swells up and sideways in a wide 30-meter expanse of its halls. From the portal spelunkers can already see rays of light casting down to the cave’s flooring located afar. The light which illumines the cave came from three yawning holes which seemed to be caused by a past collapse of the upper ground of the mountain that hosts the cave, Salarda observes. "The cave’s dead because the host mountain might have long been bald," he says.

The holes are located in between the 50-meter length trek of the team inside the cave. A unique huge stalagmite formation resembling ancient Chinese artworks rising up to about 10 feet can also be seen inside.

David assessed that Salvacion’s caves are potential for eco-tourism development and a site for trek and spelunking most proximate to the cities. "The Salvacion cavcs are wondrous but endangered, all the more there’s a need for re-greening projects to revitalize it with life-giving trees," she added.

Hearing of the discovery of the team, Board Member Kris Caballero vowed to include in her greening projects the vicinity of the cave in close coordination with host barangay Salvacion.

Kris has been launching massive reforestation drives in the province with the youths since her assumption into office last year.

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OPINION

BROWN EDGES

By Cha Monforte

Plantation economy

There’s now bullish mood of some sectors over reports on the expansion of export or cavendish banana production in Compostela Valley. Unlike before, Compostela landowners now even those producing the staple food rice are voluntarily knocking at the doors of banana exporting firms to have their land converted into banana plantations under growership contracting scheme.

In the past, there was that pocket of resistance met by banana companies on charges that they were swallowing up the Compostela rice granary and that they used toxic and hazardous pesticides which caused illnesses to banana workers that included deformation of body parts exposed to the chemicals and sterility. In fact, there was that class suit filed by workers in Panabo plantations but we heard it ended giving more profits to the organizers and lawyers than to the suing workers after erring US chemical manufacturers paid a hefty amount for damages.

The volunteering landowners now couldn’t be faulted for hearing that the plight of early banana growers have improved after liquidating their borrowed financing from banana companies after a long time. It’s a natural reflex after all to imitate neighbors who made good out of a certain product or trade. It’s when growers share income in dollar terms from oxes of bananas they produce that matters more than what they could get from producing rice.

That finds discord to the target of realizing food sufficiency particularly a rice production commensurate to the number of local consumers. Enough with that line of our agri department. It’s really a folly to always aspire for rice sufficiency when the Comval’s rice is being transported to Bislig or when Comval’s sari-sari stores sell the tasty Banaybanay rice. Still we can only rely from the workings of the market, domestic or foreign, as to the adequacy of our rice the same as the laissez faire has been dominating among the rules in our farms.

Davao del Norte farms particularly those in Sto. Tomas, Dapecol, Tagum and Panabo fringes were there before Comval farms are being gobbled up by the present vogue of goin' export bananas. And indeed, monies still come and go until present for the early banana growers in the way we see them line up in rural banks chosen by banana companies as dispensers of growers’ production shares.

It's the cash that flickers in village economies that rely on cavendish bananas. To many banana workers cash is the be-all and end-all of their existence otherwise we would not be seeing a bloody fight over land between the poor and the poor in Davao del Norte. There a bane of goin’ bananas is, while banana buying companies just wait for the victorious poor ARB (agrarian reform beneficiaries) group which it could deal with for growership after a bloody fight over CARP and CARPable land.

This staking of land by ARBs is a powderkeg issue as much as the question of whether we would be going full-steam in export banana production is largely a bread-and-butter issue. In areas where landowner growers are present than ARBs, it’s the cash that matters to the laborers notwithstanding that it is shared to benefit first and foremost the banana firms then next the landowner growers before the ordinary workers.

Beyond the contention that the banana growership farming is only good for the companies and the few landowner growers, the great laborers have to feign agreeable to the scheme for the other alternative is either unemployment or out-migration from their communities blockaded by banana hectarages and plantations. This is where a plantation economy results in giving development without equity in the long-run. That would especially true to areas where few landowner-growers abound than to areas that have ARBs. At least latter has stake as an organization for their laborer members to benefit. The former has only a bitter pill for the taking of unorganized banana workers.

(Brown Edges is one of the views of Rural Urban News (RUN), a community news agency edited online based in Compostela Valley seizing up the seamless Internet, e-mail technology. For comments/reactions, e-mail to ruralurbanews@yahoo.com)