Feature:

Pantawid Pamilya changes Pa’s attitude as a farmer

By: Minerva BC Newman

CENTRAL VISAYAS, Oct 9 (PIA) – Jaime Binoro, 42 of Carlos P. Garcia town in Bohol has been a farmer all his life as this was his father’s life lessons to him – “walay nadato sa pag-eskwela” (nobody gets richer because of education),  farming earns your keep for the day the reason grade 2 was all the education Jaime got.  

Married to Marilyn, a registered Pantawid Pamilya beneficiary with their two children ages eight  and one years old.

Traditional farming is all that Jaime knows.  His schooling was simply how to learn to read and count a little bit because farming anyways does not need complicated calculations.  That was how his father described it to him.

However, as agricultural farming and weather pattern changes, income from farming is steadily dwindling.  Jaime began to worry about the future of his two children.

“Paet gihapon kay gamay ra gyud ni akong nahibaw-ang buhaton, ug kay mubo man ko ug grado wala gyud ko’y matudlo sa akong mga anak nga panginabuhian,” (Things are still hard because farming is all that I know and having very minimal education I do not have anything worthy to teach my son  except farming.) Jaime sigh.

As his wife Marilyn goes about her regular chores and attending various activities and seminars that Pantawid Pamilya offers to all beneficiaries, Jaime was just silently watching at the sidelines.

To his mind, the program was good because his 8-year old child goes to school daily with ‘baon and fare’  and his one-year old and his wife often visit the rural health clinic for all kinds of health related services.

“Sa akong pagtan-aw sa pag-apil sa akong asawa sa Pantawid Pamilya, kampante na kaayo ko, wa na ko mahadlok kung bati akong ani kay sigurado man ko nga maka-eskwela man akong anak,”  ((When my wife  became a grantee of Pantawid Pamilya, I was no longer afraid when harvest is bad because I know that my son can still go to school.), Jaime smiled.

Jaime learned from his wife about the benefits of Pantawid Pamilya.  Marilyn explained to him that the program is the government’s  poverty reduction strategy that provides conditional cash grantsto extemely poor household for health, nutirition and education.

“Nalipay ko nga maka receive akong pamilya ug kapin libo kada buwan.  Ingon akong asawa, para ni sa mga gastosan sa pag-eskwela ug pagpa-tsek up ug nutrition sa among mga anak,”  (I was really happy that my family receives over a P1T per month.  My wife told me that this is for the education and health and nutrition of our children), Jaime added.

Part of the program’s design is to have the family attend  regular Family Development Sessions. (FDS).

“Sa sige ug apil sa akong asawa anang FDS daghan man siya ug nakuha nga hinay-hinay niyang gi gamit sa among pagpamuyo unya nindot man ang resulta,” (my wife’s constant attendance to family development sessions taught her some things about family which she is slowly applying in the house and with good results), Jaime noted.

He further adds, ‘mao nga pag-ingon nga adunay ihatag nga seminar para sa mga bana nga mag-uuma ug mangingisda, wala ko magduha-duha nga mu-apil kay nakita na nako ang kaayohan sa Pantawid Pamilya mau nga nakasiguro ko nga kaayohan gyud ning Rice Subsidy,”  Jaime said.

(When we were informed that a seminar would be given to the grantee’s spouses who are farmers and fisherfolks, I did not have second thoughts that it only brings good news. I have seen the good effects of Pantawid Pamilya and I am sure that the same would happen with the Rice Subsidy program).

DSWD-7 Pantawid Pamilya regional coordinator, Aileen Lariba said that farming was once and still is the chief way of life in most counrtries all over the world because without the crops and animals raised in the  farms, population would not survive.

Scientific methods and labor-saving machinery have made farming increasingly productive. The development of improved plant varieties and fertilizers has helped double and even triple the yields of some major crops, Lariba noted.

Scientific livestock care and breeding have helped increase the amount of meat and products that animals produce. Some of these methods are alternatives during unfavorable conditions that beset the best of farming, she went on.

“Sad to note that many of our farmers and fisherfolks do not know that those methods exist and there are those who are apprehensive to take on new ways and most of these are the poorest of the poor, including Manong Jaime,” Lariba told this writer.

The introduction of “Cash For Work” and “Cash for Training” of the Rice Subsidy Program of Pantawid Pamilya is a welcome endeavor for the small scale farmer and fisherfolks such as the likes of Manong Jaime.

After completeing the 11-day training and community work under the Rice Subsidy program, Jaime only has this to say; “sukad sa akong kinabuhi karon pa ko naka bati ug garbo sa akong pagka mag-uuma.”  (For the first time in my life, I felt proud of being a farmer.)

“Di na ko mauwaw mu-ingon sa akong anak nga puede ko niyang sundon kay na-a diay mga bag-ong pama-agi sa pag-uma,”  Jaime added. (I am no longer ashamed to show my son the life of a farmer and that he can become one what with the new ways and scientific methods of farming.)

“Dako kaayo akong pasalamat sa Rice Subsidy ug Pantawid Pamilya sa DSWD kay bisan mubo ko ug grado gitaga-an ko nila ug oportunidad nga ma-edukar ko ug ang pinaka-importante para ni mabuhi akong pamilya ug makalingkawas sa tumang kapobrehon.”

(I have the Rice Subsidy Program and Pantawid Pamilya of DSWD to thank because even if I have a minimal education, I was given the chance to learn and most importantly I could cross my family across poverty.)

Jaime shared this sentiments in one of the sharing sessions after the seminar.  Indeed, Pantawid Pamilya works!  

It continues to innovate and adds more creative ways to enlist the poorest of the poor families in various communities in the country to assist them find better ways to rise from the quagmire of poverty. (PIA-7/mbcn & DSWD-7/al)