GK houses in Bukidnon

President Jose Zubiri of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association said yesterday that he had constructed 2, 000 houses with the so- called Paglaum Village in Bukidnon.

But there was something more to it.  Zubiri said the Provincial Government also constructed a hospital with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for the new villages, mostly, for “impoverished sugar workers”.

Confed members themselves, were surprised and elated by Zubiri’s  revelation which came after Edith Villanueva, Sugar Industry Foundation, Inc. president, informed the Confed national board of trustees that she had just inaugurated several houses in the Hope Village of Talisay City jointly with the Gawad Kalinga.

That information prompted Zubiri to urge farmer-members of the Confed to tie up with the SIFI and GK and to launch similar projects in their respective districts.

The point is that other than the moral values facet of the GK program, Zubiri said he donated an additional two hectares of land for use by the sugar workers for their livelihood projects.

In addition, he added, P200,000 worth of vegetable and cash crop seeds were turned over to the sugar workers. These will enable them to earn extra income, Zubiri added.

Surprisingly, Zubiri chose Paglaum as the term for the sugar workers’ village. It used to be the catchword of the late Governor Alfredo Montelibano, Jr. of Negros Occidental. Talisay, in turn, also named its GK village as “Hope” the English translation of Paglaum.

In urging Confed members to put up their houses for sugar workers jointly with the help of SIFI and the GK, Zubiri said it is imperative that they also help in the construction of the houses.

“You know the impact on the workers when they see their “amos” personally involved in home construction,” Zubiri stressed.

It is not enough to provide the workers houses and a source of livelihood, it his also vitally important for them to have access to the best hospital care,” he reasoned as the cause for his putting up the state-of-the-art medical facility in the area.

Zubiri is not only president of the Confed, he is also the governor of Bukidnon province.

He mulled the possibility of setting up a committee of Confed and SIFI members to coordinate the nationwide project for Confed areas.

That seems to be the good news amid the barrage of pressing stories about the state of the country, including the promise by Thailand that it is going to sell 1.5-million metric tons of rice to the Philippines.

Nothing, however, was mentioned about the buying price of rice. Worse, a minority leader of the House exposed the alleged procurement of “rotting rice” from India by former NFA manager “Arthur Yap”, not the agriculture secretary.*

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