Some 100 families in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija are reportedly starving in evacuation centers where they have sought refuge following military operations against New People’s Army (NPA) rebels two weeks ago.
The reports have prompted the Commission on Human Rights (CR) to a send a lawyer and a special investigator to Barangays Villa Rica and Masbang in Pantabangan town to investigate.
Lawyer Danilo Valdez of CHR-Central Luzon said he expects the findings of the investigating team today.
The evacuees, according to reports, are now starving, as their crops had been harvested by unidentified folk and their livestock slaughtered.
The families were told to move to the evacuation centers after the NPA ambushed last Jan.31 men of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion on board an M35 truck at Kilometer 5 of the national highway in Pantabangan.
The military launched pursuit operations against the ambushers, who killed a soldier and wounded two others.
In a phone interview, Maj. Charlemagne Batayola, Jr. spokesman of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Nueva Ecija, admitted that some 100 families have been displaced in the two Pantabangan barangays.
But Batayola said it was the decision of the municipal officials to evacuate the villagers.
He said residents of Villa Rica were brought to a barangay hall, and those of Malbang, to the barangay high school.
Batayola, however, denied that the evacuees are starving. “They have remained abundant in relief goods from the local government. As a matter of fact, some of the Aeta families even prefer to prolong their stay at the evacuation centers because they get free food and other needs,” he said.
But Batayola blamed the rebels for destroying the villagers’ farms.
The Philippine STAR
Thursday, February 12, 2009
By Ding Cervantes
Friday
Farmers score ‘defective’ seeds of hybrid rice
CABANATUAN CITY –Several farmers in Nueva Ecija are demanding reimbursement and damages from the company that sold them hybrid rice seeds that were defective and failed to grow properly.
Mario Imperio of the farmers’ group Bumalikat said many farmers in his village in Guimba town feared that they would not recover their expenses due to the stunded growth of their rice plants.
“They were expecting that their harvest would be very low because of the poor growth and development of their rice plants,” Imperio said.
He said the farmers were asking the Department of Agriculture to require the SL Agritech Corp., the firm that sold the seeds, to reimburse them.
They were also urging the DA to penalize the firm for supposedly short charging the government and the farmers in their agreement to supply good quality seeds to boost rice production under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program.
Imperio said the government paid P1,500 per bag of 20-kg seeds as subsidy. The farmers paid P2,500 for the seeds they acquired through their municipal agricultural offices.
But Serafin Santos provincial agriculturist of Nueva Ecija, said the farmers’ demand was too harsh and called it a “misplaced outcry.”
“They are no solid bases to say that the farmers who planted the SL-8 [hybrid rice] variety already suffered huge losses. In our monitoring, not one farm was found where all the plants flowered and produced grains prematurely,” he said.
“The situation in Nueva Ecija regarding the SL-8 rice plants was overblown,” he said. “The reports of the three teams monitoring the situation in the field showed that only 2 to 3 percent of the plants flowered and bore fruits prematurely.”
Santos said the farmers panicked when they saw some of their plants producing grains even though they were very young and they told other farmers about it.
“Word circulated that their plants were stunted and bore fruits prematurely,” Santos said.
He said some of the farmers, who saw some of their plants were flowering prematurely, destroyed their plants and planted another variety of rice.
Dr. Noel Mamicpic, SL Agritech vice president, said their findings, as validated by the monitoring team, showed that a small percentage of “off-type” seeds caused the problem.
“These off-type cannot be avoided. They mixed with the hybrids during production and post production,” Mamicpic said.
He said the production of hybrid rice seeds involved the crossing of three different parent plants.
Like in other seed production activities, a 100-percent genetic purity of the seeds is almost impossible to obtain, he said.
Mario Imperio of the farmers’ group Bumalikat said many farmers in his village in Guimba town feared that they would not recover their expenses due to the stunded growth of their rice plants.
“They were expecting that their harvest would be very low because of the poor growth and development of their rice plants,” Imperio said.
He said the farmers were asking the Department of Agriculture to require the SL Agritech Corp., the firm that sold the seeds, to reimburse them.
They were also urging the DA to penalize the firm for supposedly short charging the government and the farmers in their agreement to supply good quality seeds to boost rice production under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program.
Imperio said the government paid P1,500 per bag of 20-kg seeds as subsidy. The farmers paid P2,500 for the seeds they acquired through their municipal agricultural offices.
But Serafin Santos provincial agriculturist of Nueva Ecija, said the farmers’ demand was too harsh and called it a “misplaced outcry.”
“They are no solid bases to say that the farmers who planted the SL-8 [hybrid rice] variety already suffered huge losses. In our monitoring, not one farm was found where all the plants flowered and produced grains prematurely,” he said.
“The situation in Nueva Ecija regarding the SL-8 rice plants was overblown,” he said. “The reports of the three teams monitoring the situation in the field showed that only 2 to 3 percent of the plants flowered and bore fruits prematurely.”
Santos said the farmers panicked when they saw some of their plants producing grains even though they were very young and they told other farmers about it.
“Word circulated that their plants were stunted and bore fruits prematurely,” Santos said.
He said some of the farmers, who saw some of their plants were flowering prematurely, destroyed their plants and planted another variety of rice.
Dr. Noel Mamicpic, SL Agritech vice president, said their findings, as validated by the monitoring team, showed that a small percentage of “off-type” seeds caused the problem.
“These off-type cannot be avoided. They mixed with the hybrids during production and post production,” Mamicpic said.
He said the production of hybrid rice seeds involved the crossing of three different parent plants.
Like in other seed production activities, a 100-percent genetic purity of the seeds is almost impossible to obtain, he said.
Monday
Prayers sought for Red Cross workers
PALAYAN CITY –Senior Board Member of Nueva Ecija Rommel Padilla and younger brother of popular action star Robin has appealed to his fellow Novo Ecijanos to offer prayers for the freedom of the three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross now being held captive by a bandit group in Mindanao. Under the present circumstances, Rommel said, prayers appear to be “the only potent instrument available to us to save the three Red Cross workers and the three other Filipino teachers” kidnapped by Abu Sayyap members. “Let us join together in prayer and invoke divine intervention in keeping our brothers from harm’s way,” Rommel said. The plea for prayer was aired by Padilla in support of efforts of his sibling Robin who has been invited by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), government and other peace-loving groups to help in the rescue of the Red Cross workers.
Produce more food, GMA tells Nueva Ecija farmers
PALAYAN CITY – President Arroyo rallied the country’s farmers to help push the country’s efforts to maximize food production.She said increased food production could serve as hedge against the financial crisis that has toppled the world’s giant economies such as those of the US and European countries.
The President was guest at the third Convention Center here. The event highlighted the birthday celebration of Butil party-list Rep. Leonila Chavez.
The occasion was also graced by Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio M. Umali, his wife third district Rep. Czarina “Cherry” D. Umali, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, Undersecretary Lorelei Fajardo, and other provincial officials.
She thanked the farmers for producing the country’s prime staples.
President Arroyo lauded the cooperative banks that, she said , had helped boost the various agricultural programs in the countryside and pledged to provide additional funding support for the agriculture sector.
Harping on “radical thinking,” Arroyo said the country’s farmers” should produced the rice that we consume instead of buying it from foreign countries and in the process boost our economic standing among our Asian neighbors.” As support for our farmers, President Arroyo said that in Nueva Ecija, instead of 30,000 metric tons, the government is buying one million metric tons of palay.
Mrs. Arroyo cited the efforts of the farmers to help in “feeding the nation.” Speaking in Filipino, She said,” Salamat, pinakain n’yo ang buong bansa at kumikita pa kayo upang umangat ang buong bansa.”
Saying that the country is still economically viable, she announced she had approached the Philippines’ Asian trade partners Japan, Korea and China to combine efforts for “economic cooperation” to enable us to weather the economic crisis.
February 2, 2009
Manila Bulletin
By Magtanggol Vilar