Cotabato : promised land

Title

Language

English

Source

Panorama X (10) October 1958

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Philippine Panorama — XLVI COTABATO: PROMISED LAND Cotabato is the biggest and potentially the richest province of the Philip pines. At present it is a vast expanse of forest and fertile land, fed and made more fer tile by the second longest river in the Philippines— the Rio Grande. The marshes and swamps along the river, if con verted into fishponds, could supply the entire archipelago with fish. Its vast plains if con verted to ramie plantations could produce enough fiber for twice the population of the Philippines. The rich alluvial soil along the river if properly cultivated could feed the en tire nation. As it is Cotabato is just grow ing. A Malabon entrepreneur who constructed a group of fishponds near the mouth of the river has to charter a plane to bring his fish to Manila. The ramie plantation at Buluan keeps the Japanese textile mills continuously supplied with fi ber. And the corn produced by the mechanized farms is sold in the Visayan markets. And yet, one feels that the present level of production has hardly touched the fringes of its vast potential wealth. The Rio Grande is the most important transportation lane of the province. This river in spite of its size is shallow in many parts. Thus transporta tion is crude and expensive; and thus the cost of commodi ties that go in or out of the pro vince rises almost automatical ly. Road building in Cotabato is just starting and the bureau of public works estimates that it might take another decade before the province is provided with an adequate system of land transportation. Probably because of this one gets in Cotabato a sense of feverish impermanence. It is as if those who are engaged in the extraction of its wealth feel t their days are num bered and therefore they have to get what they want with al most hedonistic frenzy. The pulse of life here is unnatural; 76 Panorama it lacks the evenness and rhy thm that usually goes with sea sonal pursuits. T1 HE center of the province is Dadiangas now called General Santos, in honor of the Ute General Paulino San tos who opened the territory for settlement. Dadiangas has more than 45,000 inhabitants. The town nestles in an area that produces coffee, corn and . cotton in abundant quantities. The original 3,000 settlers who came with General Santos in 1939 had spread to Ala Valley, Koronadal, Lagao and Marbel. Their struggles against locusts, malaria and poverty are now paying off. They now own farms that are worth a hundred times more than their original value. Cotabato can very well be called the melting pot of the Philippines. Here people from all groups live together— Ilongos, Cebuanos, Tagalogs, and Maguindanaws. They have rais ed towns that they have pur posely named after the places of their birth—New Capiz, New Iloilo and New Cebu. But the houses of the settlers in these new towns are uniformly drab and makeshift. Newness is equi valent to impermanence. How ever, nobody seems to be bo thered by hard gruelling labor because here work is the rule of existence. Like Stilu and the coastal regions of southern Mindanao, Cotabato was settled before and during the Spanish regime by Malays and Indonesians. In the 15th century, the Malayan October 1958 77 settlers in the province were converted to the Moslem faith by Sariph Kabungsuan, an Arab-Malay imam who visited the region with traders. Like the rest of Moroland, Cotabato has never known the domina tion of the Spaniards. The Americans however were able to subjugate the Maguin danaws. This was the beginning of the progress of the province. With the establishment of the rule of law in the province, settlers from all over the Phil ippines emigrated to the pro vince. Agriculture is the basic in dustry in. the province. The farmers of Cotabato are now beginning to realize the ad vantages of mechanization. The cotton and coffee plantations are now mechanized. ■p ut the crop that Cotabato ■ * - * has claimed for its own is ramie. This remarkable fiber thrives very well in the porous soil of Cotabato. Ramcor, the biggest ramie plantation in the Philippines, covers an area that stretches from one horizon to another. The corporation sends its fiber down the Rio Grande to steamers waiting at the mouth. The fiber is sent to Ja pan for processing and weav ing. Ramcor is planning to put up its own plant soon. The biggest problem of Co tabato is rats. The rice-produc ing area of the province is pe riodically attacked by hordes of rats. The government is doing its best to eliminate the pest. Another big problem of Co tabato is the cultural conflict between the Moslems and the Christians. There seems to exist among them a feeling of mutual distrust. This distrust sometimes erupts into bloody battles. One still remembers the massacre on Tigkawayan when a group of Christian settlers descended upon a moro village and practically wiped it out. The basis of this conflict is economic. The datus, fearful of loss of power, still wish to as sert their authority over the Christian settlers. Once an area is cleared and planted, a datu would demand its return. The Christian, quite naturally, would defend his right and a fight would start. However, the Philippine Constabulary has the situation well in hand and now even the powerful datus think twice before they decide to tackle this band of professional soldiers. Cotabato is the promised land of Mindanao. Properly directed, it could become one of the Phil ippines’ most important pro vinces. The industry of the pioneers in Cotabato would surely transform that province to an economic force. ¥ * ¥ 78 Panorama

pages

76-78

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