Manila-On June 16, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Asia Michael Schiffer awarded more than P65 million ($1.16 million) in grants to support energy security and conservation in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela as part of his visit to the Philippines from June 15 to 18.
Recipient organizations are USAID’s Filipino partners Tri-Sky Inc. and the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation.
Provided under USAID’s P1.6 billion ($34 million) Energy Secure Philippines program, the grants will support local energy planning and the installation of renewable energy technologies, such as solar roofing and nano generators in the province. With greater energy access, Cagayan and Isabela’s remote communities can better prepare for and recover from natural disasters. Communities surrounding the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites in Lal-lo and Santa Ana will also benefit from the grants.
“USAID understands that energy is the foundation for systems such as banking, telecommunications, digital platforms, health, education, and transport, among other services,” Assistant Administrator Schiffer said.
“We look forward to partnering with the Philippines to provide greater access to sustainable energy in remote communities, increasing prosperity for families across the country.”
In partnership with the Mabuwaya Foundation and the Agta Indigenous Peoples community at Sitio Golden Valley in Barangay San Mariano, Assistant Administrator Schiffer also launched the “From Ridge to River” project. Through this project, USAID will work with local communities, partners, and government officials to conserve forests in northern Sierra Madre.
“This launch is an important step toward preserving the natural beauty and ecological balance of the region, and we are proud to be part of it,” said Assistant Administrator Schiffer.
During his time in the Philippines, Assistant Administrator Schiffer also spoke at the Asian Development Bank’s annual Asia Clean Energy Forum in Manila and visited a USAID-supported drug rehabilitation program in Mandaluyong City.
Additionally, he traveled to Palawan, where he toured the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park; visited a waste collection and sorting site; sat with civil society organizations to discuss concerns over illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone; and visited the BRP Teresa Magbanua to learn about the Philippine Coast Guard’s protection of marine resources in Philippine waters. (PR)
Rice
We know too well that rice is the staple food of many people. It is considered as one primary source of energy for our body. That is why many of our people, particularly those engaged in manual labor, would look for rice more than any other food. Farmers and laborers are sustained by the staple even with less viand for their meals. This group of workers could not withstand a day’s labor without eating ample amount of the staple. But other workers or even those who are not engage in productive occupation are similarly dependent on rice as basic food. It may be because we are made to grow on rice beginning from infancy that we develop dependency on rice. It seems tough to depart from what we have grown and lived with all our lives. It is the primary food that had been implanted in our consciousness to the point that we starve for it and remain feeling hungry without it.
The greatest irony is while we have been trained to grow by rice, many of us had not been trained to grow rice. It is being implanted in our consciousness as the basic food is not coupled with the consciousness to plant that food. We had in short been engrossed in a culture that depends on rice as our staple food but production seems not part of the culture. In fact, those engaged in the production of the staple are exploited in many ways and hardly reap the fruits of their labor. The people who live by the sweat of their brows and the mud on their feet are unwilling victims of an unjust social order where they remain captives living on the bondage of the soil. The exploiters among the rich and powerful, those who have the capital needed to produce rice, are the ones getting the huge chunk of the profits from the rice industry.
While faced with this real inequity, many of our farmers are realizing the difficulty of their living, pushing them to aim or just dream from being freed out of the chains of their impoverishment. This explains why they work too hard to see their offspring who are to succeed them, earn education and acquire other skills that would bring them financial freedom. The trend of farmers’ children trying to take painstaking sacrifices to be educated and be at par in the global competition is epic. That has been so in so many decades and we have success stories of professionals reaping the best the world can offer for their once impoverished situation. We take pride and are happy with such inspiring tales but we miss so much of the most important message it sends to all and sundry aside from the lessons of hard work and the proving of the adage that poverty is not a hindrance to success.
But the trend is alarming than inspiring as many of us would like to believe. The departure of many from the bondage of the soil and cruel exploitation of such unjust social order had actually been gradually depleting the working hands that till our lands. Efforts of government to reclaim so much land or find compensation from those lost to land conversions would be futile due to the bitter reality that the work force in the farms had dwindled significantly over the years. Many of our productive generation, those within the working-age population, had been pushed by poverty to become domestic and blue collar workers in foreign shores. We have lost so much to the rich countries of a powerful workforce that could potentially augment rice production to dirty jobs like caring for the old and sickly that commands high wages that our government cannot afford to match both in pay and opportunity.
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