IN OCTOBER 2007, I met my former boss at the Manila International Airport Authority, GM Ed Manda, at the Holiday Inn Resort-Clark.
He regaled me with stories about the bamboo, its varities – spiny and non-spiny, colors of green and yellow, etcetera; uses – from building materials to dresses, bags and belts, to food and beverages – yeah bamboo beer included. He said he just came from China on some sort of a bamboo pilgrimage, which highpoint was that place featured in the movie Crouching Tiger… where the protagonists had an extended battle atop swaying bamboos.
He was in Pampanga, Manda said, on a bamboo propagation campaign.
A few days after, I read from the papers that Manda’s Center of Excellence for Regional Cooperation (CERC), the spearhead the national bamboo program, had joined hands with the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL) and presented to the sangguniang panlalawigan a province-wide bamboo program.
The program called for the organization of a Pampanga Bamboo Development Council which comprised, for the public sector, Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao heading agencies such as the Department of Agriculture-Central Luzon, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, Department of Trade and Industry-Pampanga, Pampanga Mayors League and the municipal agriculturists, the Department of Science and Technology, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Magalang municipal government.
The private sector component, headed by Sonny Dobles, bamboo director for the Rotary Club of Metro Clark and vice president of ADCL, comprised of various non-government organizations, including ADCL, the Rotary Clubs of Metro Clark, Angeles West, and Clarkfield, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Provincial Agriculture and Fisheries Council (PAFC).
The SP was reported to have committed support to the bamboo program and allotted P3 million for its implementation in six pilot municipalities of Pampanga.
Soon after, we read in the papers of the council’s pursuit of its advocacy “for sustainable environment and livelihood in Pampanga through the development and propagation of bamboo as a source of food, commercial products, and as natural protection against global warming and soil erosion.” This, not just through interactions with various audiences but with the initial establishment of nurseries for bamboo seedlings, “investing considerable time, effort and manpower resources into the program.
All’s well there, until Honorable Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio shot it down.
Panlilio created another Provincial Bamboo Development Council (PBDC).
“They have created the (other) council without the governor having any part in it. It is the duty of the governor to create such council,” Panlilio rationalized, adding that the ADCL should have sought the concurrence of the governor on the matter.
“Usurpation,” cried ADCL’s Rene Romero. “We had Capitol representatives attending many of our meetings, suddenly they just stopped and now they create their own council without even telling us. This move is a waste of time, money and resources.”
Raged Romero: “This is another blatant disregard by the governor of the efforts of the private sector, the provincial board and the business sector. Just because he does not like us, he creates his own council.”
Romero said stakeholders loyal to the ADCL-sponsored council will boycott Panlilio’s new bamboo council and will express open opposition to Panlilio’s plan as “the reason for his move is clear. He created another council because he does not like the people who are running the original.”
Yeah, we understand Romero very well.
Comes to mind now what the Rev. Fr. Resty Lumanlan said of Panlilio’s running the Capitol like a parish – “Papulayan ne ing probinsya antimong parokya.”
Too often we have heard of parish priests supplanting established parish pastoral councils (PPCs) with their own, for the simple unreason that they don’t like the faces of those in the original PPCs.
Running the province like a parish. At least nobody has cried as yet that Pampanga is being run by a conjugal dictatorship.
He regaled me with stories about the bamboo, its varities – spiny and non-spiny, colors of green and yellow, etcetera; uses – from building materials to dresses, bags and belts, to food and beverages – yeah bamboo beer included. He said he just came from China on some sort of a bamboo pilgrimage, which highpoint was that place featured in the movie Crouching Tiger… where the protagonists had an extended battle atop swaying bamboos.
He was in Pampanga, Manda said, on a bamboo propagation campaign.
A few days after, I read from the papers that Manda’s Center of Excellence for Regional Cooperation (CERC), the spearhead the national bamboo program, had joined hands with the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL) and presented to the sangguniang panlalawigan a province-wide bamboo program.
The program called for the organization of a Pampanga Bamboo Development Council which comprised, for the public sector, Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao heading agencies such as the Department of Agriculture-Central Luzon, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, Department of Trade and Industry-Pampanga, Pampanga Mayors League and the municipal agriculturists, the Department of Science and Technology, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Magalang municipal government.
The private sector component, headed by Sonny Dobles, bamboo director for the Rotary Club of Metro Clark and vice president of ADCL, comprised of various non-government organizations, including ADCL, the Rotary Clubs of Metro Clark, Angeles West, and Clarkfield, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Provincial Agriculture and Fisheries Council (PAFC).
The SP was reported to have committed support to the bamboo program and allotted P3 million for its implementation in six pilot municipalities of Pampanga.
Soon after, we read in the papers of the council’s pursuit of its advocacy “for sustainable environment and livelihood in Pampanga through the development and propagation of bamboo as a source of food, commercial products, and as natural protection against global warming and soil erosion.” This, not just through interactions with various audiences but with the initial establishment of nurseries for bamboo seedlings, “investing considerable time, effort and manpower resources into the program.
All’s well there, until Honorable Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio shot it down.
Panlilio created another Provincial Bamboo Development Council (PBDC).
“They have created the (other) council without the governor having any part in it. It is the duty of the governor to create such council,” Panlilio rationalized, adding that the ADCL should have sought the concurrence of the governor on the matter.
“Usurpation,” cried ADCL’s Rene Romero. “We had Capitol representatives attending many of our meetings, suddenly they just stopped and now they create their own council without even telling us. This move is a waste of time, money and resources.”
Raged Romero: “This is another blatant disregard by the governor of the efforts of the private sector, the provincial board and the business sector. Just because he does not like us, he creates his own council.”
Romero said stakeholders loyal to the ADCL-sponsored council will boycott Panlilio’s new bamboo council and will express open opposition to Panlilio’s plan as “the reason for his move is clear. He created another council because he does not like the people who are running the original.”
Yeah, we understand Romero very well.
Comes to mind now what the Rev. Fr. Resty Lumanlan said of Panlilio’s running the Capitol like a parish – “Papulayan ne ing probinsya antimong parokya.”
Too often we have heard of parish priests supplanting established parish pastoral councils (PPCs) with their own, for the simple unreason that they don’t like the faces of those in the original PPCs.
Running the province like a parish. At least nobody has cried as yet that Pampanga is being run by a conjugal dictatorship.
