Two of them have publicly spoken for documentation. Others choose to let their achievements speak for them later.
Meet Neonita Capirayan. In her community in Sitio Tacuyong, Barangay Leon in Iloilo, she is generally known as a woman who disarms anyone she meets with her ready smiles.
But up there in the mountains and forest, she is “Kumander Soraya.” For years, she led a life, and a number of followers, pursuing a revolution which she ardently believed would bring changes to a society of many appalling antitheses.
Now, she finds meaningful changes as she pursues undertakings in the agricultural fronts.
Hundreds of kilometers away, in Mindanao, meet Jacob Palao, 56, who had been spending three days a week as a freedom fighter. The rest of the week, he did odd jobs to support his family.
A member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Palao had been dreaming of bailing out his life and that of his family out of grinding poverty because of what he believed was unfair conditions for them to improve in life, particularly, economically.
Then, change came. He was enticed to join 125 other colleagues in a training for modern agricultural pursuits. “I never expected that carrying guns in the name of struggle will end. I will (now) be carrying modern tools for farming accompanied by a carabao,” Palao said as he wiped out his tears.
Capirayan’s and Palao’s redirection of their pursuits were documented by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC).
Skills in mobilizing
Capirayan felt then that change must be enforced as she saw what she termed as continuing inequalities in society – with the rich getting richer and the poor plunging deeper to the quagmire of poverty.
“Injustices were also prevailing,” she said.
She then started mobilizing restless souls in her village and other villages to join the New People’s Army (NPA). In time, she was named a leader of a group of combatants. She became known as “Kumander Soraya” who led her comrades in trudging mountains and valleys to spread their revolutionary causes and in combat with the government troops.
She also became mother of three children whom she entrusted to the care of her close relatives.
Unfortunately, she was captured while visiting her children. When she was freed from incarceration, she met workers in government who were introducing projects in agriculture.
“I joined others in our community in attending seminars and trainings in agricultural pursuits. I just wanted to see if these could bring changes that we have been opting to happen,” Capirayan said.
Then, she was approached to become a farmer-leader. Using her skills in mobilizing and organizing, she soon found herself leading the “Movement for Agrarian and Rural Advancement (MARA), a group under the Philippine Association of Small Coconut Farmer’s Organization (PASCFO).
She advanced the importance of uniting and collaborating together starting from the smallest unit of society – which is the family.
“We engaged in integrated farming and raising domestic animals. Then we heard about carabao dairying. We attended the trainings and social preparations conducted by the PCC in our place,” Capirayan said.
Perlito Echeche, chairman of PASCFO, attested that Capirayan and nine of her group members now among 47 members of their organization who have purebred dairy carabaos.
Capirayan said they get daily earnings from the milk they collect from their carabaos. Their children were also introduced to milk drinking to supplement their nutritional needs.
“We are now also into vermiculture using the animal’s wastes as substrate. The vermicast that we produce is used as organic fertilizer to our crops,” she said.
Currently, she added, they are training in the production of lactic acid bacteria serum using carabao’s milk.
“The serum can be used to our plants to increase their resistance against different kinds of viruses,” Capirayan said.
Modern rice farming
In Maguindanao, inside Camp Darapanan of the MILF, the 126 members of the MILF force underwent weeks of trainings on agriculture conducted by the DA, thru Phil- Rice, in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Among others, the trainings were on modern rice farming, vegetable production, cattle and goat raising, rubber trees growing, and corn production. They were carried out under JICA and PhilRice Technical Cooperation Project 5 (TCP 5).
According to Teodora Briones, head of PhilRice planning and collaborative programs office, the project is a rice-based farming technology undertaking launched in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARRMM) to help restore peace and progress in the region through increased agricultural production.
It involves trainings, rolling- out of farm machinery and pieces of equipment as well as development of location- specific rice-based farming technologies. It also promotes technologies as “Palay- Check”, which is an integrated crop management approach, and “Palayamanan”, which involves a diversified integrated rice-based farming system in different ecosystem and agronomic conditions, she added.
Early this year, the training for the 126 MILF combatants was conducted. Last March 8, they attended their graduation rite and the turn-over of the package of livelihood assistance.
They received 103 carabaos, 83 cattle heads, goats, rice and corn seeds, rubber and fruit seedlings as well as fertilizers. On the other hand, they turned over firearms as part of their de-commissioning process.
Better future
Palao said he will now fully devote his time and energy in agriculture using the knowledge gained in the trainings.
“I can now live peacefully with my family unlike in the past in which I could not tell them whether I can come home alive or not after my tour of duty,” he said in an interview with newsmen.”
He added that with the livelihood equipment at hand, he could see that his children can continue their schooling, earn degrees and become productive citizens.
On her part, Capirayan said:
“What I am doing and achieving now, and those of my colleagues, is an alternative way of achieving peace and progress.”
