Villa Aurora looking for 300 has. for Jatropha

By CHITO DELA TORRE
May 5, 2008

Villa Aurora, the mother barrio of Ugbok where some 15 armed New People’s Army members were confronted last week by a mobile Army unit under the command of Lt. Col. Jonathan G. Ponce of the 62nd Infantry Battalion, is now in identifying up to at least 300 hectares of land that it could use for its community Jatropha production project.  The search for a suitable space, preferably abandoned or idle, or otherwise not cultivated for a long time now, actually began immediately after more than 20 Jatropha planters from the barrio, together with their energetic punong barangay, Marito Lancanan, and some kagawad, concluded their community assembly on Jatropha and agrarian farmer-beneficiaries re-identification in the afternoon of April 17 at the elementary school in the locality.

Marito is hopeful that until last Sunday, the barangay would be able to identify 300 has., with some lands probably contiguous or close to each other.  Once the total is met, the barrio council will pass a resolution that it will send to Chairman Renato S. Velasco of Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) through president Teodorico D. Porbus of the Baktas Kabub’wason Rural Workers Association (Baktas).

Marito is informed that the resolution would serve as one of the strongest basis that could facilitate the forging of a contract between Baktas and PNOC-AFC pertaining to the massive planting of Jatropha or Tuba-Tuba in Basey.  He noted that some private agricultural lands had not been cultivated or looked after at least by their landowners for more than a decade now.  These will be included in their project site identification, he said, adding that he will attach a sketch to the resolution, to indicate where in the whole map of Villa Aurora the Jatropha production project of the barrio will be located.  Through the resolution that the barrio council will sit on, the barrio will be asking also for financial, technical and technological assistance from Chairman Velasco, particularly along the strategies that the Chairman and PNOC-AFC consultant Dr. Visco discussed when they talked to the Jatropha planters and enthusiasts of Basey during their first visit to Basey on the occasion of the Jatropha production seminar and general assembly of Baktas last March 8 at the Basey National High School.

The punong barangay, who is also an active second top official of the CASA (Council of [Agrarian] Volunteers for the Accelerated Development of Samar Settlement Project-Basey), is happy to note that Villa Aurora tops all 50 other Basey barrios in terms of actual number of Jatropha planters, total number of Jatropha shrubs planted, and widest area already planted to Jatropha.  Some of Villa Aurora’s planters received a certificate of appreciation during the March 8 assembly, for having been recognized as top planters and producers of Tuba-Tuba planting materials that had been distributed to other barrios of Basey.   Among them is Carlito D. Porbus, younger brother of Baktas president Dioring.  Carling is elected chairman of the local management committee (LMC) of Baktas in Villa Aurora.  He holds the title of having the most number of Jatropha planted in Basey.

At the April 17 consultative meeting in Villa Aurora, presided by Dioring and this writer as the municipal agrarian reform officer assigned to the SSP-Basey (particularly barrios Baloog, Cancaiyas, Manlilinab and Villa Aurora), some of the male and female farmer-landowners expressed their intention to also send their commitment to have their lands, that are not planted or devoted to the production of staple food crops, planted to Jatropha.