Opening salvo on
presidential polls

I was caught by surprise by the news story from Alex Vidal who claimed that former Rep. Albertito Lopez of Iloilo's Second District announced his endorsement of Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II of the Liberal Party to be the next president of the country.

Of course that may have been a premature opening of the next presidential campaign which, if it were happen, maybe under a new system - a parliamentary form of government.

The question with that is we don't know yet how the President would be. In short, will the pattern be French? Or will it be English? A lot of questions could throw a monkey wrench to the whole enterprise.

In short, Albertito could have kept his mouth shut for the time being, pending the outcome of the people's initiative row.

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Since we are heading toward the Holy Week, it is about time I write about a rare sight in the Bata Catholic Church (Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church). For the past several weeks, members of the First Community of the Neo Catechumenal Community had been openly or publicly professing the faith.

It is enchanting to listen to Christians who admit how they had been snatched by the Lord from the brink of disaster and brought back to the fold, unraveling before their eyes the nuances of the faith.

Young and old, they tell the same story of how Christ touched their lives and how they managed to turn around and develop a better appreciation for Scriptures and for the faith and the sacraments.

Of course, they don't proclaim themselves saints. They often refer to their community as a community of sinners. But one can see the hand of God moving in their lives and their families as well as those whom they touch with their evangelization.

Today is the last day of this "reditio." They had gone about it without fanfare. Actually, this was the first time this had been done in Bacolod. Last year, the first one in Western Visayas was held in Molo, Iloilo. Hundreds of community members from other parts of the Visayas attended the rites.

God writes in mysterious ways and His wonders are there for all of us to behold.

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The best fertilizer for farmlands are the footprints of the farmers, themselves. That may not have been a pioneering idea, but that sums up more or less the lessons learned by Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao members of the Confed board of trustees who visited last Wednesday the farms of Federico Locsin and Mike Hinojales.

Sugar farmers, like George Zubiri of Bukidnon listened in awe to Hinojales explain the basics of farming - like the fact that the soil serves only as a conductor for the elements needed by sugarcane.

In short, the farmer must develop the instinct and the keen sight to determine what ails a sugarcane and the elements that it lacks.

Then, through a series of experiments with scientific basis, he applies the necessary amount of fertilizer at the appropriate time.

But the visiting farmers also found themselves surprised how Hinojales reacted to a lesson learned by Locsin during their conversation. Jimmy Araneta told me that Mike immediately called his farm administrator and told him about the experience of Locsin. He also instructed him to "replicate it in our farm for the purpose of testing the viability of the idea."

Zubiri, Araneta said, pointed out that Bukidnon has a rich soil plus the ideal weather condition for sugarcane farming. But, pointed out Hinojales, one must learn how to dish out just the sufficient quantity of water to the plants.

"You don't give a person a gallon of milk when you see that he is malnourished. You could drown him, give it to him in regulated doses," Hinojales reportedly said.

Well, anyway, the sugar farmers from other areas of the country learned a lesson or two during their visit to the Locsin and Hinojales farms.

The first lesson: Be concerned about your farm. Don't depend on others to do what you are supposed to do. Hands-on management is the most important. But one must remain open-minded to admit new experiences by others and must be ready to test ideas and new techniques. More important, though, pointed out Araneta, one must always study.

Knowledge is vital in farming. It can spell the difference between success or failure as a farmer. Amen to that.

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Blanche Rivera of the Inquirer called Roberto Cuenca a Marcos crony when she wrote about how Negros land reform beneficiaries are still barred from Cuenca's farm in Velez-Malaga.

Why did she have to include that term "Marcos crony", it was very unnecessary. Not only that. She could have asked some of the veteran Negros watchers and they could have told her that Bob is one of the most respected sugar farmers hereabouts.

Not only that. He is the one who organized his former farm hands into a cooperative and turned over to them his hacienda lock-stock-and-barrel.

And long before that, Cuenca had already been noted for his socially-conscious handling of his farm laborers who dote on their former "amo".

Yes, he was a board member under former Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Montelibano, but he was one person who never made hay under the Marcos regime. His father was one of the most respected sugar figures. Tio Nanding Cuenca was former head of the Philippine Sugar Institute and pioneered in testing the industrial diversification concepts of the industry.

Bob remains today a respected leader of the industry. But he is so not because he was a political figure but because he managed to remain apart from the merry lives of former cronies of Marcos. He always was Bob Cuenca.*

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