Punchline
Another “Impossible Mission”
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
HERE’S a seemingly “impossible mission” that only Guv Spines can take on. (After all, he is the only one who tried and is now succeeding in clearing and cleaning the province’s main rivers and tributaries not only to protect the environment but to preserve them as a viable habitat for fish that will provide food for everyone for a long time).
I’m talking about the aggressive yet pernicious and fast growing occupation of rice lands in the province by tobacco manufacturers and traders that now seriously threatens Pangasinan’s stature as a premier rice producer in the region.
As a smoker himself, Guv Spines and the rest of the smokers in the provincial agriculture office might not be aware that rice farmers in the province are now being enticed by unscrupulous tobacco contract traders systematically to shift from rice and food crops cultivation to tobacco growing for bigger short-term profits, never mind that rice production in the province continues to decline because of the series of typhoons that have hit us.
Like the mushrooming of the fish pens by unscrupulous greedy businessmen that resulted in the series of fish kills owing to the pollution of the rivers, the current raid of the rice lands in the province by tobacco contract traders will inevitably deprive farmers of their regular sources of food and income in exchange for a promised cash crop in the short term. If this remains unchecked, Pangasinan will consequently be producing much less rice and other food crops for local consumption, which will push the retail price of rice spiraling upwards. What has always been deemed an unimaginable situation will soon hit us. Translation: Pangasinan will be among the first to suffer the impact of an impending food crisis and our NFA offices here will stop boasting of ample rice supply for the province.
Even worse, the rivers close to the tobacco plantations will again be polluted, thanks to the huge volume of pesticides and fertilizers being dumped on the farms.
What the tobacco traders are not telling rice farmers is the scientific finding that soil planted with tobacco renders the soil eventually unsuitable for rice and other crops. And when the soil finally becomes infertile for tobacco planting, farmers will eventually begin earning less while unable to immediately return to planting rice and other food crops. When that time finally comes, the indecent greedy tobacco traders will be far away searching for more fertile lands to waste while pocketing their huge profits. They certainly won’t be around to help farmers and landowners defray costs to restore the soil’s fertility.
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So while Guv Spines has been busy with his pet projects, the sneaky tobacco traders have been busy expanding their networks including keeping some key officials in the Department of Agrarian Reform office in Urdaneta in their pockets. Today, some personnel in the DAR-Urdaneta office, evidently colluding with the tobacco traders, provide the information on the location of rice farms that have tenants with leasehold agreements – the prime targets. Worse, some officials in that office are surreptitiously and actively encouraging farmer-tenants to shift to tobacco since nothing supposedly in the tenancy leasehold agreements prevent farmers from planting tobacco.
We are seeing this in Sta. Barbara where huge tracts of rice lands are now being raided by the tobacco traders. The chairman of Barangay Bangzal in that town now even facilitates the availment of loans by farmers extended by the tobacco traders. Having seen how they operate, I have no doubt that the unscrupulous tobacco traders have already penetrated other tenanted rice farms in other towns in eastern Pangasinan.
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Unknown as well perhaps to Guv Spines (and members of the provincial board), intensive tobacco farming not only affects the soil and rivers but induces cutting of trees! Wood is essential in the curing process. In time, the massive tree-planting program of Guv Spines shall have served the interests of the tobacco traders only.
So before the voracious tobacco companies and traders become the double-headed monsters who shall have succeeded in making rice lands infertile and unsuitable for rice and food crops in a year or two, Guv Spines and his “Impossible Mission” team must act now to stop and fend off the rampage in our rice lands that would effectively reduce the volume of rice and primary food crops planting in the province.
Track the ugly tobacco traders and kick them out!
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HIS FATHER’S SON. So young and promising yet already a trapo. That’s Dagupan Councilor Brian Lim.
His attempt to portray himself as the last man standing for the good, prodding his colleagues in the city council to stop politicking with a forked tongue smacks of a typical trapo. ls he for real? I wonder if he has ever stood before a mirror and asked the image standing before him: “What’s the matter with you?”
As the bright-eyed political neophyte, I had expected more from him believing that he jumped into the fray with his idealism intact. But I guessed wrong. Like a true blue trapo, this time he appeared to bleed for the Dagupenos who he claims stand to lose if the city continues to operate on a re-enacted budget yet like the 3 blind, deaf and mute monkeys, he stood there like he was unaware of the political war that his father-mayor has been waging all along against the very institution he belongs to. What hypocrisy.
The city council is under siege by his father Mayor Benjie with the intent of making the council a rubber stamp, bending to his will on a whim – a template for unabated corruption – yet through it all, he appears completely disconnected. I know he’s not dumb but why is he clueless on what’s basic in governance? If he refuses to stand up for what is mandated by law, to fight for the rightful interests of the city, then he can say goodbye to his political stars. He will always be known as his “father’s son”, right or wrong, never mind the city!
A future Mayor Brian would have stood up with a short privilege speech that begins and ends with” Mr. Mayor, you are wrong to do this!” But a dutiful father’s son like him who only feels safe under the shadow of his father regrettably is not wont to do that. Tsk-tsk.
But fair is fair. Councilor Brian was right to decide that, henceforth, he will stop picking up his paycheck as councilor until the budget is passed. He certainly doesn’t deserve a centavo since he’s afraid to move a muscle to defend the city council’s mandate and to do what is right for the city. His colleagues deserve theirs.
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