Subanon Fernandez Anda’s face lit up when he saw us emerge from the bushes and clump of trees and into the clearing. He eagerly welcomed us to his hut and waited for us to catch our breaths after an hour’s trek to the steep and rugged mountains of Sitio Gulangan. He was thrilled to tell us his story. Fernandez Anda and daughter with rice harvested from their own terraces and milled in their own backyard.

Our group was headed by Yulo Perez, TVIRD vice president for Philippine Operations; and Thess Limpin, TVIRD manager for Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO). We were joined by CReDO Information Officer Jose “Pepe” Dagala, and Social Development Consultant German Romano. Barely three months since our last visit to this piece of land in the Subanon ancestral domain in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, Anda’s farm is now a picture of abundance. What used to be muddy earth is now covered with yellow-green rice stalks, with their golden grains standing out under the blazing sun. The model rice terraces project is a success.

Anda, 51, is the first beneficiary of the Farmer-Instructor Technician (FIT) program, a livelihood-through-agroforestry component of the Social Development and Management Plan for the indigenous people (IP) hosts of TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD). The company has, since mid-2004, been operating a gold and silver mine in Sitio Canatuan, also in Siocon, and will begin producing copper and zinc in mid-2008.

The first rice terraces in the mountains of Zamboanga Peninsula, shown here ready to be harvested.  If the success of Anda’s farm were to be a gauge, then it is safe to say that the once semi-nomadic Subanons, who were used to the traditional – and destructive – slash-and-burn farming method, can easily adopt the irrigated multi-cropping scheme using the rice terraces farming technology – the same technology applied by generations of Ifugao IPs in the mountainous terrains of Northern Philippines.

Read more

Cong. Rosendo ‘Dodoy’ Labadlabad had fondly called it ‘hard work’ when Cong. Cesar Jalosjos, Cong. Cely Carreon and himself worked to secure P168M for the improvement of Dipolog Airport. He disclosed that the amount should be spent to extend the runway of the airport and the installation of landing lights.