People who made a difference in 2006

(The following article by Ms. Charo Nabong Cabardo was reprinted from SCOPE, a new magazine that debuted this February in Region 8, with permission from the author and the editors of the magazine.)

By CHARO NABONG-CABARDO
March 2, 2007

Time magazine ushered in 2007 with a tribute to the Person of the Year (us) and an article about people who made a difference in our lives globally.

In Samar, my list of persons who have made a difference in the lives of Samarnons would include Mel Sarmiento, Cesar Aculan, Romeo Royandoyan, Angel Hobayan, Leonardo Medroso, Jose Palma, Mario Quijano, Renato Latorre, Don Mabulay, Coefredo Uy, Eduardo Nachura, and Ray Gaspay. My list is surely not a result of an exhaustive search, there may be more out there, but to me, these persons have done something beyond expectations that spelled a difference in the lives of Samarnons specially the poor farmers and fisherfolks, in this part of the world.

Cesar Aculan is the director of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Calbayog. Among the religious, titles like D.D., S.T.D., H.P. are earned for completing certain studies but Fr. Cesar has been conferred the title Sus.Ag. which is jokingly appended to his name by his religious colleagues for his untiring promotion and practice of Sustainable Agriculture among the farmers of Samar. Majority of the priests in Samar have embarked on beautifying their churches and convents, but Fr. Cesar took the “road less traveled” he organized trainings for farmers, established a demonstration farm, sourced materials and funding to make farming a sustainable and profitable venture and in the middle of these - provided refuge to the farmers and their families who were displaced by the silent war waged in Samar. Along with sustainable development, he has pushed for Peace and Development to secure a peaceful environment for development to prosper in Samar island.

Angel Hobayan, Leonardo Medroso, and Jose Palma were bishops in Samar island. Bishop Hobayan was bishop of the Diocese of Catarman before he retired in 2005; Bishop Medroso was bishop of the Diocese of Borongan before he was named Bishop of the Diocese of Bohol in November, 2006; and Bishop Palma was bishop of the Diocese of Calbayog before he was promoted Archbishop of Palo early last year. The formidable trio added their voices and support to the establishment of the Samar Island Natural Park and the people’s stand against mining and logging in the island of Samar. When the DENR issued an order in 2005 lifting the logging moratorium in Samar island which allowed the San Jose Timber corporation to resume logging operations, the three bishops closed ranks again, this time with Bishop Trance of the Diocese of Catarman who had replaced Bishop Hobayan, to oppose the DENR order. Bishop Emeritus Hobayan came out of his retirement to testify in the Senate public hearing on the issue. The three bishops also initiated the formation of the Samar Island Development Council which later became the Samar Island Partnership for Peace and Development.

Mel Sarmiento, Coefredo Uy, Reynato Latorre and Mario Quijano are mayors of Calbayog city, Catbalogan, Villareal and Pinabacdao respectively. Mayor Sarmiento is an energetic mayor who has won numerous awards for his good governance in Calbayog, the only city in Samar island. He was named national winner of the Konrad Adenauer Medal of Excellence (KAME) as a highly performing city government by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Local Government Development Foundation. KAME, named after the first German Chancellor, is an award for best managed local government unit in the Philippines, given to local executives for their leadership, accomplishments and vision for their communities. He has also won for Calbayog an award from the Galing Pook Awards for his project on Coastal Zoning which delineated the boundaries of the municipal waters of Calbayog City and its neighboring municipalities, thus securing the municipal fishing grounds for the artisanal fisherfolk of Calbayog.

Mayor Mario Quijano brought honors to the municipality of Pinabacdao when his proposal for an agro-forestry project was declared one of three national winners in the Panibagong Paraan Competition of the World Bank in 2006. His proposal, “What is Yours is Mine, What is Mine is Yours”, bested 87 other proposals from the original 1,000 entries and a P2 M grant was given for his project. He convinced farmers to go into agro-forestry, offering to pay for their tax delinquencies when yields had improved.

Mayor Uy, or Tekwa as he prefers to be called is a first termer mayor of Catbalogan who showed how to exercise political will in realizing long cherished improvements for the town of Catbalogan. Most politicians in elected positions would hesitate to act on what has to be done fearing the loss of votes, but Mayor Tekwa pushed on, no matter the political consequences. With this daring-do, he was able to do what his predecessors were not able to accomplish. He built and improved the wet and dry markets for fish and vegetable vendors. He built the first bus and jeepney terminal for Catbalogan, the premier town of Samar. He was named Second Best Performing LGU in Fiscal Management and Collection in Region 8 (second to Ormoc City) by the DILG.

Reynato “Boy” Latorre is another first termer mayor of Villareal, Samar who took the “responsibility of an extra-ordinary, mind-boggling and gargantuan project that separates us from the very ordinary Filipinos”, in the words of Prof. Cesar Torres, a Villahanon based in San Francisco, U.S.A. The project is the repair and concreting of the 9 km. road from the Maharlika highway to the town of Villareal. Built in 1937, the dirt road is the only access road linking Villareal to the rest of Samar but it has deteriorated so badly, people would rather take to the sea to reach Villareal. With the strong support of the Villahanon Association in Metro Manila (VAMM), Mayor Latorre has mobilized his fellow Villahanons here and abroad to contribute sacks of cement and harnessed tiklos labor (the traditional practice of helping one another in times of harvest). Contributions poured in and people turned up for the tiklos and now about 3.5 kms of what is now known as the “Villareal Bayanihan Road” have been cemented. Mayor Boy Latorre has demonstrated people power in action in his municipality. The project continues and so thus the tiklos spirit.

Romeo “Omi” Royandoyan is the executive director of SENTRO SAKA (formerly Philippine Peasant Institute), an NGO working for Filipino farmers. He has served as member of the Board of Trustees of the UCPB to look after the interest of the farmers’ coco levy. For many years now, Omi has consistently been assisting the coconut farmers in Samar. As a response to the low price of copra, his NGO came up with the Kopra Social Investment Plan to enable farmers to bring their copra to the milling companies at miller’s prices and chose Samar as one of their pilot sites. (Samar is the biggest coconut producing province in Eastern Visayas which in turn, is the third coconut producing region in the Philippines). In 2006, he brought Danilo Coronacion, CEO of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund and Oil Mills President, to Samar where he linked up CIIF’s Coconut Farm Development Program to the coconut farmers of Samar. The program covers 12 municipalities in Samar provinces to undertake planting, replanting & fertilization; crop intercropping with tuba-tuba and other crops; and harvesting and copra processing. This is an industry-wide program that could boost the sagging coconut production and income of coconut farmers in the province.

Don Mabulay succeeded me as the executive director of Tandaya Foundation, a non-government organization based in Catbalogan, Samar. In the NGO community, Don is known to be a non-conformist in a community of already many non-conformists. He is known to greet you over the phone with reverse greetings “greeting you good morning when it is afternoon and vice versa, so the guy in the other end won’t have to ask “hino ini”. A self-proclaimed Cinderella (to be home before 12 midnight he tells his buddies that being Cinderella he is scared of becoming a mouse), you can count the few times he turns up in long pants and shoes, preferring to be comfortable in his shorts and sandals. Early on in our NGO work, he tried to teach Samarnons in government “how to think”. His “WII-FM” (What’s in it for me?), an innovative process to generate participation has now been adopted and used by many NGOs in many parts of the country in their trainings. Eccentricity aside, he was a major winner, in the national competition of the World Bank’s Panibagong Paraan 2006. His policy proposal “Aquaculture for Fisherfolks” calls for making Technology accessible to small fisherfolks to engage in sea farming. With dwindling yields from fisheries not only in the Philippines but also worldwide, his proposal was hailed to be the most practical policy to increase harvests and incomes of fisherfolks.

Ray Gaspay is one of two persons who provide cable TV services in Catbalogan. The other guy has been able to make extensive cable TV connections in Catbalogan that has earned him millions. Ray, on the other hand, has made limited cable TV connections, but unlike no other, Ray was able to connect with people worldwide specially those who come from the islands of Samar and Leyte. With his SamarNews.com, an on-line newspaper about Samar and Leyte, he prides in providing “the latest news in Eastern Visayas region” and providing a message board for personal comments & inquiries and even searches for long-lost friends and relatives; and a discussion forum on issues affecting us in the region. Obviously not a commercial venture, I don’t know how Ray is able to sustain SamarNews.com but he has done it!

As a lawyer, Antonio Eduardo Nachura is known nationally as an authority on Constitutional law - teaching and writing law books about it. He is also admired by close friends and colleagues for his dedication to teaching. Even when he was congressman of the second district of Samar, he continued teaching law in various law schools. He has served as Undersecretary of the Department of Education and has been one of the public prosecutors during the impeachment proceedings against Pres. Joseph Estrada. Recently, he has been appointed as the country’s Solicitor General. But it is not his long list of achievements in his professional and political career that I have included him in this list. As president of the Katbalaoganon Association of Metro Manila in 2006, he envisioned a book tracing the history of his native town of Catbalogan as a legacy to the young Catbaloganons to be proud of their heritage. And he made this vision a reality by publishing O, Catbalogan! Prof. Cesar Torres praised the book as “one of the most beautiful book ever.” He said that “In the entire history of Samar, since the beginning of time, "O, Catbalogan!" is one of the most momentous happenings in our history... It is a food for the soul, food for the intellect, a tribute to all the Samarnons, past, present, and future.” Of course, I’m thankful to Atty. Nachura for giving me the opportunity to work with him on this book.