JUST WHAT exactly makes a place tick? For Baguio, perhaps, it is the cool climate; and for Metro Manila and Cebu City, probably trade and commerce. Only a few localities in this country are lucky enough to have both. And one of them is Bukidnon. One time, on an out-of-town assignment cum golf trip to Bukidnon with former Press Secretary Horacio Paredes, who now writes a column for Malaya newspaper, I somehow fancied myself retiring in the province, preferably near the 80-something-year-old golf course owned by multinational food company Del Monte. Golf as a personal obsession aside, I found Bukidnon interesting. From what I gathered, at least based on findings of the National Statistical Coordination Board, the province has been making headway in its fight against poverty. For 2003, the NSCB listed Bukidnon as among the provinces with the highest increase in poverty incidence. Today it is the other way around: Bukidnon is one of the provinces with the highest decline in poverty incidence. What makes the place tick? Well, its natural assets—such as good weather and fertile soil in the highlands— should be on top of the list of answers. Still, I have been thinking that those same natural assets have been there for the longest time. Its turnaround must have been the result of some other factors. I put governance on top of them. The province had just one governor since 2003, none other than former Congressman Jose Ma. R. Zubiri Jr., who is the father of Sen. Miguel Zubiri who, in turn, has been rather quiet lately perhaps because of his closeness to the former cute administration. Anyway, Joe Zubiri has transformed Bukidnon from a sixth-class province into a first-class province. It was, in a way, a miracle jump. Some economists perhaps ought to study the program of Joe Zubiri for the province for duplication elsewhere. As a matter of fact, the program of Joe Zubiri already caught the attention of other LGUs here. Governors and mayors already trooped to the province to take a look at the miracle. There were even visiting LGU officials from Cambodia. I thought somebody should document Bukidnon’s story, using scientific methods and all that. Personally, I am interested in the health program of the Bukidnon provincial government. Recently, my cousin in Tarlac needed to undergo surgery, but he did not have the money for it. In cases like his, does our government expect us just to die? Thus, I admire the health program of the government of Bukidnon because Joe Zubiri made it a priority. Of course, the province did not have enough money to put up dozens of hospitals all over the highlands. Joe Zubiri thus built provincial health stations in areas all over the provinces, choosing mainly poor areas. The provincial government implemented a program for 100-percent free health care for the indigents. OK, it got help from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., which was not a bad thing instituted by the former cute administration of Gloriaettta. To support the free health care program, Joe Zubiri invested heavily in new hospitals—three in all, or one in each congressional district of the province—to which the health stations referred the more serious cases. And then there is the livelihood program in the province that has so far lent money to at least 40,000 individuals and 20 big farm cooperatives. The province is now ranked the second-largest producer of corn in the country, hitting total production of almost half a million metric tons every year. Distributed to farmers were large tracks of cornfields, rice paddies and sugar plantation. It has proven that Bukidnon could be good in food production. Del Monte located its pineapple plantation there in the 1920s, even exporting its production. Bukidnon had an outstanding track record in food production. Joe Zubiri simply used it. According to official statements of the provincial government, Bukidnon received numerous awards, including the Rafael M. Salas Award for Population and Development, the highest award given to LGUs for public services. Bukidnon has been consistent in getting nutrition and health program awards that it is now elevated to the hall of fame. And that is why I thought to myself that Bukidnon should be a nice place for retirement and it is not just because of its fine weather for golfing. It is a progressive area. |
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
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