• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Agrarian reform beneficiaries in the 5th district of Negros Occidental, who are engaged in planting sugarcane, have banded together to protect their industry, which is the source of their livelihood.
Calling themselves the 5th District The United Blockfarm, ARB, Small Planter’s Organization (5D TUBO), they held yesterday their 1st general assembly in Barangay 5, Isabela, Negros Occidental, which was attended by Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo and Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, who assured them of full support in their endeavors.
If they are united, the government will notice them, Yulo said, as he likened them now to the big sugar planters’ groups.
Yulo, who used to be a board of director in the Sugar Regulatory Administration, representing sugar planters, said he encouraged them to unite since last year, for them to have a single voice in relaying their concerns to the government, which finally paid off.
If you have 31 associations, with only 30 hectares per association, that is 900 hectares. That’s already a large area planted with sugarcane, the solon said.
It is also a big thing for sugar milling companies, if they are able to mill the produced sugarcane of small planters, Yulo said.
The general assembly of small planters was also attended by representatives of the SRA, who discussed the socialized credit financing, Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, Philippine Carabao Center, sugar milling companies, Departments of Agrarian Reform and Agriculture, and Board Members Rita Gatuslao and Anthony Dennis Occeño, among others.
The DAR, according to Yulo, has the marching order to federate all ARBs in communities.
The 5D TUBO, the first of its kind organized in Negros Occidental, is headed by Roseny Villanueva, who took oath of office before Gov. Lacson.
The governor thanked the national government agencies, such as DAR, DA, SRA and PCIC, among others, for helping small planters and farmers through projects providing various farm implements.
The assembly was attended by about 1,000 small planters in the 5th district of Negros Occidental.*
