Words of wisdom
from JV Ejercito

All the time, I had thought that the only justification for a vote for JV Ejercito is because he is the son of Erap with Guia Gomez, a Bacoleña.

But the other day, I had a different impression of JV. Which is that he is somebody with brains. Common sense. And comes up with creative ideas that are not unattainable. Just a little bit of casting around for indigenous materials by which to build things that are salable to a lot of people in other countries.

Neither does JV's idea require a lot of money. Just enough to start off a project that could build up soon into a major export cottage industry.

He was talking of rattan. And its use in putting up household appliances, etc., including works of art. But he may have forgotten that there are no longer many areas in the province that still boast of rattan. Instead, I wish to call JV's attention to bamboo and its multiple uses.

I remember a few years back, two enterprising Murcia residents had already exported bamboo toothpicks to Japan . I wonder what happened to the project. It was an export product with a good start. But I just recall how it no longer seems to have survived the times.

But bamboo is about the best alternative livelihood for sugar farmers, especially small ones. It does not require much capital for them to be able to grow bamboos and later transform them into household appliances, etc.

I remember what I had seen in Bukidnon some 20 years ago. This was the plyboo then manufactured under the auspices of Dr. Limbo, a classmate of my late wife, Dr. Lourdes Espina, at the UP College of Medicine . Dr. Limbo virtually left his mini-hospitals and devoted himself to nurting the giant bamboo which a local factory was converting into what they he called at the time as “Plyboo.”

This means that bamboo was being transformed into construction material plywood. And a lot of other things. Limbo, however, soon, suffered a stroke and, thereafter, I no longer had heard another word of what had then become a major factory in Cagayan de Oro and other Northern Mindanao cities.

Now, this is something which really should be the focused of JV's creative mind. He could go into an intensive search and research into the many different methods by which bamboo has been used by artisans – both the ordinary workers and artists to produce works of arts.

I guess, Filipinos will soon have a lot to thank JV for when he shall have created many ways whereby the average field workers and farm farmers can make something out of virtually an overlooked indigenous materials. No, bamboo is not just for fish traps. They have a lot of other uses. Perhaps, even now we can construct more durable houses than the ones which contractors are so fond of – cement and concrete buildings. In a tropical country that is often subject to periodic typhoons, the bamboo house offers the best means by which Pinoy households can survive catastrophic visits.

All it takes, JV, is a little more of your time to make Filipino aware that they have in their bamboo a treasure that can earn them millions of pesos and provide them an alternative livelihood to sugar farming. After all, the tariff on sugar is going to come to fall to five ad valorems or virtually disappear by 1215.

***

As a veteran watcher of the legislative institutions, I was taken aback by the imprudence of the SP members who disapproved the proposed P2 billion Negros Occidental budget for next year.

Capitol employees were holding their Christmas party in front of the provincial Capitol building when the SP deliberated on the 2013 budget. Their action dismayed the employees. Most of them had looked forward to receiving the remaining P20,000 bonus so that they have an enough time to buy the Noche Buena for their families during the Christmas celebration.

Of course, for Marañon, that was not a setback. After all, he had already given them the initial P35,000. Now, what reason did the opposition give for their opposition to the additional P20,000 bonus for the employees?

This is something which I had noticed with Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. He does not exaggerate what the provincial government had done for the province. Instead, he just mentions the results of the ongoing programs. And let the other side who are opposing him come up with the critique. The problem with that is that one must be able to come up with substantive mistakes or failures of implementation of project and programs.

So, in the case of the budget disapproval, there must be a credible explanation for their opposition to the budget for 2013.

***

If things pan out right, by next year we may be able to have direct flights from South Korea to Bacolod-Silay Airport , according to Bacolod City Administrator Johnny Orola, Jr.

These five flights will be chartered trip from Jan. 10 to Feb. 7. It is expected to bring in some 1,500 passengers from South Korea .

Orola is holding talks with the Philippine Air Lines, the Customs and Foreign Immigration and Quarantines authorities of the Bacolod-Silay Airport to iron out kinks before the final implementation of what could later develop into an ongoing program.

To Orola, our kudos and congratulations.*

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