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DEPERTM

ENT OF AGRARIAN REFORM

T H I R d I S S U E

C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 0

Rolling out: P5B for agrarianreform beneficiariesBY BlancHE RIvERa-fERnandEz

There are a lot of open secrets at the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. The most open and the least secret are the arrienda (lease or rent) being arranged by farmers even before the contentious land is distributed to them. The Department of Agrarian Reform has heard the same whispers, too, from different places. But by this time, the government knows talk is cheap, so it’s letting its money talk back—loud and clear. “It’s illegal and we will not honor that, but it’s real on the ground. That’s why this is what we’re solving first,” Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Jerry Pacturan said. “If you see the amounts we have now, it’s really quite substantial: P2 billion for credit fund, P1 billion for insurance, P2 billion for ARCCESS, which is mostly equipment and services. That’s about P5

insurance for crops and livestock, rural infrastructures, and land tenure improvement and stability. The DAR first rolled out the common service facilities last year, which are basically big farm machines that farmer organizations could not afford, such as tractors, hauling trucks, combine harvesters, threshers (as pictured above) and decorticating machines. The machinery requires a 15-percent equity from the recipient ARB organizations but in the form of labor or land. There will be no cash-out for the farmers. They must, however, agree to receive agri-extension and business development services as well. “Sometimes this concept of entitlement is so strong in the marginal sector that when something is given, they’ll say they will do what they want with it because it’s theirs, not aware perhaps of the implication that while this is free, this is public good given by government. They should utilize it as a business asset. Otherwise, it will be gone in a few months or years. That’s why they should be taught how to set up, how to use it, through the business development services,” Pacturan said. Since the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program was launched in 1988, there have been around 2.5 million agrarian reform beneficiaries, and only half of them are organized.

A PROJECT OF

billion that will have to be spent for the year,” he said. Pacturan heads the DAR’s support services office. ARCCESS is Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services, a massive and systematic effort by the DAR to help increase the income of organized agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) by strengthening their business operations and teaching them to grow and manage their assets.

aRccESS mEnUThe ARCCESS would fill in the gaps left by foreign-assisted projects (FAP), which provided mostly farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities, irrigation sources, potable water supply, health stations and other rural infrastructures. “These were post-harvest facilities, normally a building used for storage, but what will you put in there? How do you ensure that you have something to store in that warehouse?” Pacturan said. “While we were looking at those components of FAP, we knew something was missing. The missing part was how to maximize input from the foreign-assisted projects,“ he said. The services offered under the ARCCESS include agri-technology and agri-extension, business development, common service facilities, credit, Ph

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S T A F F B O X

Editorial dirEctor

Editor

dESiGNEr

Editorial coordiNator

rEGioNal coordiNator

commuNicatioNS coNSultaNt

HUgo Yonzon III

BlancHE R. fERnandEz

adRIEnnE RaE poncE

pInkY RoqUE

noRma padIgoS

RoSalIna BISToYong

DAR Public Affairs OfficeElliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the department.

Department of Agrarian Reform

(+632) 480 39 61

dar.gov.ph@gmail.com

www.dar.gov.ph

I S S U E N O . 3 | M A R - A P R 2 0 1 3

Numbers

hectare estimated area to be given to each farmer when the hacienda is subdivided

lawyers, legal staff and other DAR personnel who conducted redundancy checks on the final list of beneficiaries

years the stock distribution option was in effect

farm workers

included in DAR’s final list of beneficiaries 0.6

130

22

6,212

N E W S

Set on developing farmers as business managers, the Department of Agrarian Reform has created a program aimed at honing the management and marketing skills of agrarian reform beneficiaries. The Program Beneficiaries Development Lawyering seeks to make farm managers out of farmers by training them to use the land awarded to them as social capital. Under the program, the DAR will form a pool of legal and support services staff in the DAR provincial offices and train them as “learning coaches.” They will teach the farmers about tapping credit facilities and other financial resources, expanding their enterprise, getting private investments, mitigating risks in production and business, and marketing their products. “The role of DAR is not only as a distributor of agricultural land but an orchestrator of rural development,” Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes said in a statement. Also known as Enterprise Lawyering, the program particularly seeks to mentor agrarian reform beneficiaries facing credit-related constraints and challenges. “This is a unique training program where the combined expertise of the DAR’s legal and support services offices are harnessed to enhance the… access to credit of agrarian reform beneficiaries and their organizations,” de los Reyes said. He said the program would ultimately promote countryside development by helping farmers to strengthen their organizations, understand relevant research, and actively engage the market. Trainings of agrarian reform beneficiaries in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Rizal have just concluded.

Farmers being trained as business managers

Rice farming technology helps fight climate change

Philrice is working hard to address the challenges posed by climate change to farming; (INSET) Government officials unveil the successful mixed technology to be implemented in 38 new sites across the country. Photos: DAR

LOWDOWN ON LUISITA

Good health and a good road—sometimes, that’s all a farmer needs. Agrarian reform beneficiaries in Zamboanga del Sur received these and more last April when the Department of Agrarian Reform turned over P50 million worth of infrastructure projects. The concreting of the 5.8-km Begong-Limas road will benefit 300 farmer-beneficiaries and 6,439 local residents. “This road project will lessen the travel time and transport cost of farmers, and will also help residents in going from town to town with ease,” DAR regional director Julita Ragandang said. She explained that the Begong-Limas stretch becomes very muddy and difficult to traverse in rainy months. Along with the P46.3-million farm-to-market road, the DAR also turned over a P1.09-million health station and P3.16 million worth of farm equipment. These include 15 units of hand tractors, reapers and threshers. They will be used by nine farmers’ organizations with some 4,800 members who are beneficiaries of land reform. The farm equipment are counted among the common service facilities being given by the DAR to various organizations of agrarian reform beneficiaries under its Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services.

Zamboanga del Sur farmers receive P50-M infrastructures2 makati citiES caN fit

iNSidE HaciENda luiSitaClimate change is probably the single worst enemy of farming in this age—and Filipino farmers are finally finding a way to beat it, one hectare at a time. Agrarian reform beneficiaries in Nueva Ecija have successfully implemented the Philippine Rice Research Institute’s (Philrice) reduced tillage and PalayCheck farming technology, new systems that allow farmers to reduce cost, increase yield and abandon practices that contribute to climate change. A test run of the combined systems resulted in a 17.6-percent increase in the harvest of rice farmers from the towns of Talavera and Munoz in Nueva Ecija, where the mixed technology was pilot-tested. This means the farmers harvested 20 more sacks of palay per hectare while reducing land preparation expenses by more than half. “For my half-hectare farm, I usually spend 15-20 liters of fuel and P5,000 for machine rent. This wet season, I only consumed eight liters,” Erlinda Jimenez, who has been farming for 15 years, said. She was surprised that the soil was as good for planting as when it was plowed. The combined system almost eliminates the plowing and harrowing parts of soil preparation during the planting season. Farmers simply need to level the soil using a leveler attached to a hand tractor to flatten the rice stalks that remain after the harvest. “This leads to less soil disturbance, thus, reducing carbon emission into the atmosphere as we merely press stubbles and

weeds, leaving the soil intact or less disturbed, if at all,” Engr. Isidro Villaflor, the technology proponent, said. Soil releases a big amount of carbon dioxide during plowing, but when it is left undisturbed, the carbon dioxide remains trapped underneath. “With this technology, little or no use of machine for land preparation means the soil is not heavily disturbed, resulting in less fuel use and less carbon emission,” said PhilRice project coordinator Ruben B. Miranda. It also helps save on labor cost, which can account for up to 70 percent of total input cost in production, he said. Farmers who tried the PalayCheck-cum-reduced tillage technology in Talavera reported savings of almost P4,000 for 6-11 hours of land preparation. Before trying this combined system, they used to spend an average of P9,000 per hectare and about 17 hours on land preparation. The new technology was the object of a memorandum of agreement signed by the Department of Agrarian Reform, PhilRice, and the Department of Agriculture last February 27 at the PhilRice Central Experiment Station in Munoz, Nueva Ecija. Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Rosalina Bistoyong, who worked to bring the technology to agrarian reform communities, said the reduced tillage-cum-PalayCheck system would be adopted in 38 sites in 12 cities and municipalities beginning this July. Report from Richard Gallardo

almoSt

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S u c c E S S S t o r Y

The concept is so simple yet so often overlooked: there is strength in numbers. In an industry such as sugarcane farming, in a country that fights tooth-and-nail for a share of the world sugar market, this concept could mean life or death for a small farmland. Where Leopoldo Bathan is from, sugarcane farmers are alive and planting. Bathan is among 43 farmers from barangay Lucban in Balayan, Batangas who have enrolled their farms in the government’s Sugarcane Convergence Program, or simply, sugar block farming. Bathan’s 2-ha land, divided into several plots, has enjoyed a 25-percent increase in yield since

the program was launched in the area last year. His 6,000-sq.m. plot, which usually yields 30 tons of sugarcane per harvest, yielded 37 tons this season, he said. “A soil analysis was conducted and the farmers were taught the correct practice in sugarcane farming,” Elvin Mirasol, the municipal agrarian reform officer of Balayan, said as hired workers hauled the season’s harvest onto a truck given by the Department of Agrarian Reform for use of the program enrollees. Of the 43 farmers in the program, 31 are agrarian reform beneficiaries who are members of the Lucban Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC). Through the cooperative, which manages

the collective farming program, farmers can get their farm input for a much lower price and take out loans to pay for these without interest. “If the farmers get a loan directly from Landbank (for the farm input), they have to pay 9.8 percent interest. If the cooperative buys the input for them, they don’t pay any interest to the cooperative. It’s the cooperative that pays interest to Landbank,” Mirasol explained. Maria Teresa Mayuga, whose parents, grandparents and six siblings, have tilled the family’s small sugarcane farms for decades, says she was often forced to get a loan because she didn’t have enough money for fertilizers whenever planting season came. A hectare of sugarcane farm requires at least 20 bags of fertilizers, which alone would cost her at least P5,000, a big

amount for a farmer relying on a crop that is harvested only once a year. “Life was hard then, so I was always borrowing money,” she said. Now, as part of a block farm, she can expect lower cost and better yield every year. The Sugarcane Convergence Program, a joint endeavor by the DAR, Department of Agriculture and Sugar Regulatory Administration, seeks to consolidate farms smaller than 10 has. and within a 2-km radius of one another, to come up an aggregate area of at least 30 has. for plantation-scale farming. This scheme is now being implemented in 12 sugar-producing provinces: Albay, Batangas, Pampanga and Tarlac in Luzon; Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, Leyte, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental in the Visayas; and Bukidnon and Davao del Sur in Mindanao.

The government will put in P41 million worth of investments for 29 new block farms being eyed this year. In barangay Lucban, the farms of the 43 enrollees have formed a total area of 35 has. Other areas in Batangas like Tuy, Lian and Nasugbu have also adopted sugar block farming. These areas have been given dump trucks that can carry up to 12 tons of sugarcane and tractors for land preparation. Besides increased productivity of 60 tons to 75 tons of sugarcane per hectare, another goal of the program is to bring down the cost of production from P1,100 to P900 per LKg (1 LKg = a 50-kilo bag of sugar). “We used to pay P800/bag of fertilizer, but now we only get it for P565/bag,” said Melanie Cabral, program manager in barangay Lucban and beneficiary of a 5,000-sq.m. sugarcane farm. She has been in sugarcane farming since she was young, as have all the farm owners, but it was only during a training session with agricultural experts that she learned the proper and most efficient way to plant sugarcane. Instead of leaving a foot of space between canes, she and the other farmers were taught to use the kadena (chain) system, which gave them more space for planting. While the results have been promising so far, convincing other farmers to enroll in sugar block farming remains a challenge. “Some think they would have a new master and they would become mere farm hands again,” Cabral said of the sentiments of other farmers not involved in sugar block farming. But those who have loved and not lost in the new scheme know better: the sour doubts will soon be lost in the sweetness of the next harvest.

The sweetness of shared successBY BlancHE R. fERnandEz

Men get the land ready for the next planting season. (OPPOSITE) A worker carries the last batch of harvest from a sugar block farm in Balayan, Batangas. Photos: DAR

“lifE WaS Hard tHEN, So i WaS alWaYS borroWiNG moNEY,” SHE Said. NoW, aS part of a block farm, SHE caN ExpEct loWEr coSt aNd bEttEr YiEld EvErY YEar.

Sugar Stats

Crop year 2012/13

RAW SUGAR PRODUCTION (MT)2,434,000

SUGARCANE MILLED (MT)25,000,000

TOTAL AREA PLANTED (HAS)423,492

Crop year 2011/12

RAW SUGAR PRODUCTION (MT)2,240,000SUGARCANE MILLED (MT)24,300,000TOTAL AREA PLANTED (HAS)420,752

Source: Sugar Regulatory Administration

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p o l i c Y i S S u E

re you from Luisita?” There was a time, 20-30 years ago, when answering “yes” to that question triggered

the envy of outsiders, said 54-year-old Dan Pineda, who, like his grandfather, father and their siblings, has worked on the vast sugarcane plantation in Tarlac owned by the Cojuangcos, relatives of President Benigno Aquino III. “We used to have a good life here. Everyone had work, even if we were not professionals. We had great benefits,” recalled Pineda, citing free transportation for their children who went to school in Tarlac, free medical treatment for their families, free medicines and a lot of man-days at the plantation. “Nobody paid attention to the land before because we were happy with what we got. Now we don’t have work—the land is our last card,” Pineda said, a little wistful. Following the Supreme Court order mandating the distribution of the 4,915-ha Hacienda Luisita to its farmers last year, the Department of Agrarian Reform came up with the final list of beneficiaries in February. Huge tarpaulins with the names of the 6,212 former farm workers and their heirs now hang in barangay halls and other public areas of the 10 barangays comprising Hacienda Luisita. In March, around 20 field facilitators were deployed to educate the farmers on the next steps of the land distribution process. The facilitators discussed the

option of requesting adjacent lots, usually among family members, so they can do block farming. Those who wanted to avail of this option were given manifestation forms to sign and have notarized. Given the estimated net distributable area of Hacienda Luisita, each of the beneficiaries will receive around 6,000 square meters or .6 ha. At that size, sugarcane is not deemed a profitable crop for farmers. “Sugarcane has a break-even point. If you only have .6 ha, you will not profit from it. It should be at least 3 has.,” said Emmanuel Aguinaldo, DAR provincial officer in Tarlac. This is why the government has launched the sugar block farming program among beneficiaries of sugarcane plantations. It is investing P41 million this year for program participants all over the country, including Tarlac. Agrarian Reform Assistant Secretary Teofilo Inocencio, who spent many years with the DAR in Tarlac, said that block farming would also discourage the new farmer-owners from turning their agricultural lots into residential areas. “We want to prevent that, which is why we encourage them to get adjacent

When land is the last hopeBY BlancHE R. fERnandEz

Alots and purposely make these productive,” Inocencio said. “If you will plant sugarcane, you really can’t do it on just 6,000 square meters. But if there are 10, 20 of you, then that’s good. The bigger, the better. This is plantation type,” he said. The DAR’s field facilitators are also tasked to explain to the beneficiaries that they are required to pay for the land that they will receive from the government, according to Section 26 of R.A. 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988: “Lands awarded pursuant to this Act shall be paid for by the beneficiaries to the LBP in thirty (30) annual amortizations at six percent (6%) interest per annum. The payments for the first three (3) years after the award may be at reduced amounts as established by the PARC.” Many farmers are being led to believe that the land is free, or that beneficiaries in other landholdings were not mandated to pay for their land, DAR officials said. In fact, some tarpaulins with the list of Luisita beneficiaries in the barangays have been taken down by unknown individuals.

Vicente Joaquin, agrarian reform officer in Tarlac City who initially went house to house with field facilitators, said the farmers’ questions were the same: when can they get the land, how much will they have to pay, and will they still get their share of the disputed P1.3 billion revenue (by the owner, Hacienda Luisita Inc.) from the converted areas. The CAR Law of 1988 gives agrarian reform beneficiaries 30 years to pay for their land through the Landbank of the Philippines, at rates that will not exceed five percent of the beneficiaries’ annual gross production in the first five years after they receive their land. “Should the scheduled annual payments after the fifth year exceed ten percent (10) of the annual gross production and the failure to produce accordingly is not due to the beneficiary’s fault, the LBP may reduce the interest rate or reduce the principal obligation to make the payment affordable,” the law states. The DAR office in Tarlac has prepared the Application for Purchase and Farmers’ Undertaking (APFU) form to be signed by the farmers when the land is distributed to them. The APFU is the farmer’s acknowledgment of his responsibility to pay for the land he will receive and his commitment to abide by the provisions of the CAR Law. Farmers who fail to pay three years of amortization will forfeit their land to the DAR and will no longer be eligible to be a beneficiary again. The forfeited land may be distributed to other beneficiaries. “Every beneficiary must sign the APFU. They need to do this. This will be attached to the claims folder,” Inocencio said. “We need the personal appearance of the farmer-beneficiary to sign.” Even Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes, in media interviews, has asked the Luisita farmers to cooperate with the government and sign the APFU,

Timeline

which some hostile groups are using to scare farmers into thinking that they will lose the land eventually. “I am appealing to the 6,212 farmer-beneficiaries for Hacienda Luisita to sign the documents so that we can proceed with the land distribution process. If they will refuse to sign the documents, then we will have no choice but to remove them from the list of qualified beneficiaries,” de los Reyes said in media reports. The field facilitators in Tarlac also distributed blank Special Power of Attorney forms to the heirs of deceased beneficiaries. The heirs must decide among themselves and appoint a representative who will sign the APFU and receive the land title for them. When the manifestations and SPAs are completed, the DAR will start allocating the land, or whatever is left of the original 4,915 has. after the area aggregate covered by roads, irrigation canals, residences and commercial conversion is removed. “We will see to it that there is equal opportunity. We’re looking at raffling off contested lots,” Inocencio said, anticipating the clamor for the best parts of Hacienda Luisita. The DAR said that some areas have more beneficiaries than land while some have more land than beneficiaries. Definitely, some beneficiaries are bound to be unhappy with what they will get. Raffling off contested lots in the presence of the petitioners and representatives of Hacienda Luisita Inc., DAR, and non-government organizations is the only solution seen at the moment to ensure that the process is fair. The whole affair would be documented on video. “This is not a normal case. We will streamline the process. It’s still the same steps done within a shorter period because this is the order of the Supreme Court,” Inocencio said. That’s exactly what farmers like Pineda are hoping for—a fresh start, and soon. “We can never bring back the good, old days, but at least we can have land. We’ll be happy with that. There’s nothing else that we can count on right now,” he said. And as new landowners, only they will determine whether Hacienda Luisita will be an enviable address again.

Asturia

Balete

Bantog

Cutcut

Lourdes

Mabilog

Breakdown of Beneficiaries, by Barangay

442

739

437

646

586

637

810

669

602

641

3

2012

Supreme Court orders with finality the acquisition

and distribution of Hacienda Luisita.

apR

2013fEB

2013maR

2013apR

DAR releases final list of 6,212

beneficiaries.

Field facilitators sent out to the 10 barangays to educate farmers on

land ownership.

Application to Purchase and Farmers’ Undertaking is explained to beneficiaries.

It must be signed before they can get their land.

2013maY

2013JUn

Hacienda Luisita is subdivided and

allocated.

Certificate of Land Ownership Awards

are given to farmers.

Government rolls out support

services for beneficiaries.

laNdS aWardEd purSuaNt to tHiS act SHall bE paid for bY tHE bENEficiariES to tHE lbp iN tHirtY (30) aNNual amortizatioNS at Six pErcENt (6%) iNtErESt pEr aNNum. tHE paYmENtS for tHE firSt tHrEE (3) YEarS aftEr tHE aWard maY bE at rEducEd amouNtS aS EStabliSHEd bY tHE parc.

Private contractor F.F. Cruz conducts survey to determine Luisita’s net

distributable area.

Mapalacsiao

Motrico

Pando

Parang

Others

Dan Pineda, beneficiary from barangay Lourdes

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S u c c E S S S t o r Y

The popularity of tablea made from Davao’s cacao promises bigger profit for farmers. (OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT) Davao’s weather is ideal for growing cacao; Sun-dried cacao beans fetch a better market price than oven-dried beans; The beans are examined to see if they are ready for the market. Photos: Courtesy of DAR-Davao

A small group of farmers from Davao Oriental may have finally struck gold in their cacao beans. After about 10 years of tilling their land and selling raw cacao beans, members of the Mayo Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (MAGREBCO) recently decided to try their hand at processing tablea or cacao tablets—and quickly realized this was their ticket to sweet earnings from those dark crops. “In March, we sold our first tablea order to Jollibee Foundation,” said Joie Nugas, chairman of the board of MAGREBCO. “We want to sustain the making of tablea so that we can involve the wives of our members in the process, and they can earn extra for their needs.” It’s not just the giant Filipino fastfood chain that has been knocking on the doors of the cooperative for their tablea. Cooperative manager Boy Galon shared that a visitor from Missouri, U.S.A. once came over to MAGREBCO’s office and bought samples of dried cacao beans, which he processed into chocolate. The American said he was impressed by MAGREBCO’s product because it contained 75 percent cacao. The beans he bought from Ecuador had only 65 percent cacao, he said. While the supply of raw materials is not an issue, Nugas said that the cooperative needed training and equipment to be able to meet the demand for cacao tablets. He said that the cooperative had to turn down offers for them to supply other

groups because MAGREBCO would not be able to produce the volume that is needed. “We have a lot of orders, but we lack the equipment and training so we can meet their orders,” he said. With the help of the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Trade and Industry, MAGREBCO members attended seminars to help them run their cooperative better. Today, the group continues to seek trainings so their products can penetrate and dominate the tablea market. In the past three years, MAGREBCO has produced around 1,000 packs of tablea, each containing five tablets, which the cooperative sold on a per-order basis. A pack retails for P50. The tableas are a big hit in local bakeshops in Mati. The cooperative is anticipating an increase in demand for cacao tablets as eight different groups have expressed interest in getting their tablea requirement from MAGREBCO, Galon said. MAGREBCO farmers are tilling an aggregate 616-ha land they received under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The landholding was previously owned by the Hacienda Mayo Inc. until the government acquired and distributed it to farmer in 2003. Nugas recalled that the owners were very cordial with the beneficiaries. When the land was distributed to them, “it was peaceful and everyone was very, very happy.” He said he has since sent his five kids to college, and he’s still enjoying farm work. Aside from cacao trees, the cooperative grows banana and coconut in the plantation but MAGREBCO’s main

BY mIko moREloS

produce is still cacao because these fetch a better price than other crops. A kilo of dry cacao beans used to sell for around P90 to P100, but the price has since dropped to P65 per kilo. “We couldn’t negotiate for a better price because buyers would quickly go to (other sellers) if we don’t agree to their price. That’s why we want to produce tablea because it will fare better in the market,” Nugas said. The summer months are usually the harvest season of cacao, and each farmer can have a yield of 50 kilos every week. In lean months, farmers harvest around 30 kilos every two weeks to allow the trees to grow beans just right. Cacao growers can sell the beans right away after harvest, but cacao sells higher when it’s dried.It takes about three days for the beans to dry well in the sun and about 12 hours using an indoor dryer, according to Nugas. While sun-drying may take more time, it requires less capital and labor. MAGREBCO farmers have no problem sun-drying beans. It took them 10 years to make a hit tablea—a few days in the sun won’t hurt if the end product can be turned to gold.

WE WaNt to SuStaiN tHE makiNG of tablEa So tHat WE caN iNvolvE tHE WivES of our mEmbErS iN tHE procESS aNd tHEY caN EarN Extra for tHEir NEEdS.

agrarian reform matters10 11I S S U E N O . 3 | m a r - a p r 2 0 1 3

THE mInd mUSEUm aT TagUIgBonifacio Global City, Taguig City“Education” and “cool” don’t usually go hand in hand but The Mind Museum continues to change this from the moment it opened its doors in the summer of 2012. The first world-class science museum in the Philippines is a P1-billion project built purely from private donations that took five years to raise. The museum, housed in a space age-designed building, has five galleries and 250 interactive exhibits that you can engage with the help of the Mind Movers, the museum’s resident scientists. The museum also has a permanent T-Rex exhibit and two outdoor parks highlighting flora and the elements. www.themindmuseum.org

This T-Rex skeleton copy is a big attraction at The Mind Museum. Photo by Ram Lee

f E a t u r E S

Art is Where You Find ItRHoEl fERnandEz stumBles on places possesseD BY aRt anD oDDness.

Eat Log:

Theo & Philo+63 920 4315650,hello@theoandphilo.com

How does a Filipino-Chinese computer programmer end up making world-class chocolates?Philo Chua was in the IT industry in the U.S.A. for five years when he came upon the single origin chocolate concept (the cacao comes from only one region). He noticed that the high-end European and American makers sourced their chocolate from tropical countries, like the Philippines. But there were no such single-origin chocolates being produced in his country. “There was nothing in the Philippines and I know we have the cacao here. That’s when I decided to come back and start this up,” said the Carnegie Mellon graduate. Thus was born Theo & Philo Artisan Chocolates, a bean-to-bar maker of single-origin Philippine chocolates. A loyal fanbase has embraced flavors such as Labuyo, Calamansi, Barako and Green Mango and Salt.www.theoandphilo.com

Surf Board:

Muni

If you happen to wake up one day and decide you want to make the world a better place, then drop by this website. Run by a passionate group of young cultural creatives, Muni features a host of advocacies that run the gamut of eco-friendly consumer goods, health and wellness, ethnic embroidery, and other local art and design. It’s Filipino positivity with a mission statement. Muni sells not just products but the principle behind social enterprisewww.muni.com.ph

UkUlElE pHIlIppInES 7274 Malugay St. San Antonio

Village, Makati City

Ukulele Philippines is one of the endearing establishments at The Collective, a gathering of quirky

retail stores with a non-conformist streak. The Philippines’ first and only all-ukulele shop has a wide

selection of imported and branded “ukes” plus accessories. The shop is an art show in itself but the real draw is the shared interest that brings folks together, with jam

sessions lasting until dawn. The store encourages people to play

the ukuleles on display. Free basic lessons and workshops are offered.

www.ukulelephilippines.com

pUzzlE manSIon BEd & BREakfaST

Purok 4 Cuadra St. Brgy. Asisan, Tagaytay City

The Puzzle Mansion Bed & Breakfast houses the world’s

largest collection of puzzles made by a single person. Guinness World Record holder Gina Gil-

Lacuna intended it as a vacation house but opened it to the public eventually. More than a thousand puzzles, including framed images

of Disney characters, classic paintings and landscapes, and

elaborate 3-D puzzles of famous landmarks such as the Taj Mahal

are on display.www.thepuzzlemansion.com

pInTo aRT gallERY 1 Sierra Madre, Grand Heights,

Antipolo City

Whet your visual appetite by viewing contemporary art in a

canvas provided by Mother Nature at the Pinto Art Gallery. Built in

2001 as a storage facility, Pinto has evolved into a venue for interesting exhibitions of contemporary art in a setting influenced by the pueblo architecture of Native American

Indians. Selected paintings, installations and sculptures done by the country’s best visual artists

possess the space inside and out of the gallery. The garden commands a

stroll, as well. www.freewebs.com/pintoartgallery

dIzon RamoS mUSEUmBurgos Ave. near Lacson St.,

Bacolod City

Dubbed vintage, retro and “oddball” by Lonely Planet, the Dizon-Ramos

Museum is a time capsule that provides a glimpse of the upper middle class life in the 1950s.

Inaugurated in 2007 as “the first 1950 lifestyle museum in the Philippines,”

the place contains religious knick-knacks and a massive glassware collection. The truly interesting

stuff are those that make a house a home—a dining table still prepped

for Sunday lunch, appliances from a bygone age and cheesy family photos, seemingly undisturbed and waiting for

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C O N T I N U E D F R O M C O V E R

These hauling truck and tractor (below) were given to the Lucban Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Batangas for use of the sugarcane farmers. Photos: DAR-PAS

Worse, more than half of them are poor. According to government data, 52 percent of ARB households below the 2009 poverty threshold, which is P16,841 annual per capita income or P101,046 for a family of six. The situation is worst in Central Visayas (comprising Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor) where 71 percent of ARBs are living below the poverty line. Among ARBs, income from the farm account for an average of 41 percent of total household income. This is why agri-extension is crucial to improving the income of farmers. “Agri-extension is market-oriented. It does not look at production only but the types of crops that have market potential. This is what we are studying… Right now, farmers are still not focused on economies of scale,” Pacturan said. ARBs must be organized to benefit from the ARCCESS because the services are funneled through ARB organizations, which will cascade the services to the farmers. ARB groups who need any of the services under the ARCCESS can apply through the DAR provincial offices. Their needs will be assessed and, when approved, the progress of their project would be monitored and evaluated by partner State universities and colleges.

Hand-HoldIngSince the ARCCESS was rolled out last year, 233 projects have been approved. Another 255 proposed projects are being assessed right now. One of the recipient ARB organizations in Isabela, the North Siffu Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, has already reported an income of P50,000 from the combine harvester machine it received under the ARCCESS. “This is training and hand-holding, not go in, go out. Part of the package is to develop

field schools and train ARBs to be farmer-technicians,” Pacturan said. “We’re ending the land acquisition and distribution, and so we’re also doing a lot of work as far as support services are concerned, which for the longest time has not been done by DAR,” he said, quite candidly. He cited the streamlining of the loan process for ARB organizations who are no longer required to present three years’ financial statements and business track record. Those who pay their loans on time will also get an incentive: instead of the 8-percent interest, they will only pay 6 percent. This is possible through the Agrarian Production Credit Program, a partnership between the DAR, Department of Agriculture, which put in the P2-billion credit fund, and the Landbank of the Philippines.

Another government agency that’s boosting support services is the

Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., which now has P1 billion in

insurance budget for ARBs. “One good thing that’s happening in government under this administration is that agencies are working together to provide the necessary

services. For example, the law says DAR should provide credit

but the mandate for credit is not with DAR, it is really with DA. So

this money we allocated for Landbank is actually DA’s,” Pacturan said. Will P5 billion be enough to convince farmers to keep their lands and treat it as social capital? Can money for support services finally change the landscape in land reform? The 2008 World Development Report on Agriculture found that for the poorest people, gross domestic product growth originating from agriculture is four times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth from other sectors. That growth may not come from Hacienda Luisita, which is not even in the hands of farmers yet, but it’s bound to come from somewhere. After all, P5 billion cannot be kept a secret for long.

agrarian reform matters12

v o i c E S f r o m t H E f i E l d

Emmanuel AguinaldoProvincial Officer 2, Tarlac

He emerges from his office and lights a cigarette. By the ease with which he conducts himself, you wouldn’t think Paro Manny were given the Herculean task of supervising the distribution of one of the Philippines’ largest sugarcane plantations, owned by no less than the relatives of President Benigno Aquino III. He talks about the 4,915-ha Hacienda Luisita like it was just another project in his 24-year stint with the Department of Agrarian Reform. By all accounts, Paro Manny works like the civil engineer that he is—with a calculated preciseness and an unadulterated sense of reality. He discusses the dangers of freedom, the difficult situation on the field, the challenges that will face DAR and the farmers when the Cojuangcos’ sugar land is finally given to its farm workers. But like the agrarian reform veteran that he is, he also knows that the only way to grow anything is to plant seeds, no matter how tough the ground.

Photos: DAR-Tarlac

Time in Tarlac is time well spent with family and friends. The measure of success in agrarian reform is whether we created beneficiaries or victims out of tenant-farmers.

real change comes from within.

if carP were a book it will be like Dan Brown’s novels: controversial and popular at the same time.

women farmers deserve equal opportunities as men. The movie ThaT reminds me of my life is Kingdom of Heaven.

What the World needs noW is more spirituality and less materialism.

If my Work-related stress had a prIce tag, it would say free. people Who don’t belIeve In government need to go to DAR-Tarlac and see for themselves how the government works. sunrIse or sunset? Sunset, hands down. I’m an owl, not a lark.