Land of fulfillment

Title

Land of fulfillment

Language

English

Source

Philippine Armed Forces Journal Volume IX (No. 4) February 1956

Year

1956

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

r.j FF.BRUAR\" 195' By fif$J: · Lieu+enont Nuordo T Guin9ona ;, . ... Considered for a long time as a land of promise, area in Mindanao, author notes, is fast becoming a land of fulfillment thru AFP's helping hand WH!~t top~:!::::o inM~~~a:as;:. ~~:m~~!~nth~~n~~ a1~:s~an p~:;,i:c;~ he found one big problem for the the spot. Today, barely one month settlers; water. They had to walk afterwards all the promised wells from four to five kilometers from have been installed. Valuable roanthe fat·m for the vital liquid. This hours have been saved for the cotproblem took away daily for hours ton industry. a strong man in the family who The speed with which the a1·my would otherwise have been in the solved the problem is a credit not fields picking up the insects from all their own. There simply cannot J>UII.II' PINES ARMED FORCES JOURNJ\1. he a tu~tl~;- agency in au adminis- town wtth a populatiOn of 30,000 tration who~~: head bursts With ac- ~ouls. The team, whose mission was ' tivtty, whos .. t•ner~etic: spnit rousts to sel'! for themselves how the Armed tht• who],. ma.c~n('t)· Clf government Forces is implementing the rural d..to action. velopment program of the President The wr1trr was a fort unate mem· in the town, saw satisfactory progber of &. tt:latn whtch VISited the cot- ress attained by the settlers. They ton provmcc of Cotabato on 8 Feb- have no more complaints; instead ruary !!)!)fi. Composed llf Rrigadier they arc all pra 1ses for the wonderGenNal Alfonso Arellano, Vice-Chief ful assistance they arc receiving of Staff; Colonel Antoniv Chanco, from thf' Government. Chief of Engmeers; Major Catalino The land foJ·-the-landless program R. lbaiiel, Jr., senior aide of thC" of the President has been impleVicc Chic£ or Staff; and Majors m<'nted since he became Secretary of InocenciO Youubao, and Modesto C. National Defense. He decided that Zap1do, the team pulled by plane it was high time Mindanao ceased from the Manila lnternattonal Ail'· to he merely a land of promise and port. and anived in the afternoon staJ"tt-d to be a land of fulfillmt'nl. of the sauw day 1n Geu. Santos, .. He found Cotahato an ideal phlCt· . ... . .,.-. Today, two yeat·s after his assum]l· men dl'illed the desired numbE'r of tion to the Presidency, lw has set· wells within less than a month. But tied about IO,OUO f:u:nlli.es from al- it did not stop there. It continued most all imrot·tant. regions of the its magnificent job, by building roads Philip]lines to the town of Didian and bridges in the province and by J{as and other settlement flt·ojects in installmg pt·e-fabt·icated schoolhouses Mindanao. Renamed Gen. Santos, for the settlers' children. Of the after former PA Chief of Staff Ma- latter, the Engineers have built three. jol" General Paulmo Santos, the It will continue its building program town is fast becommg the melting in order to help the common man pro pot of the nation, sweeled by the duce more and more fot· the nati<>n influx of people who have been li- and live more and more happily evebet·atcd frolll areas of agrarian un- ry passing of day. rest. TOO.ay, the town sprawls with Brigadier General At·ellano, im:3,00\l' hectares planted to cotton by pressed by the work of the Army in the settlers, alt·ead~· a thit·d of the Cotabato, took time out to decorate tr-J,OOO hectares intended fot· the cot- Master Sergeant Celerino Sumang as ton industry. Scene- of a borrowing best soldier of the Engineer Conanti-rat dt·ive just a year ago, for struction Group, 1956. which almost all agencies of the gov- The Cotabato settlers hav<' found e.-nment, particularly the Armed land all their own to till. They find Forces were mobilized, Cotabato is the place quick!~· undergoing a tt·ansfast becoming an agricultural haven. formation from nli'H' land of promi~e Each head of a family is granted to one of fulfillment. from 6 to 12 hectares. Averaging a harvest of 500 kilos of colton per hectare, he realizes a net amount of P'400 per hcctan:. There are two planting seasons yearly, the first in Septembet· which is harvested in February, and the second in Febl'Uary which is harvested in May. T he Farmers' Cooperative Marketing Association (FACOMA) buys the cotton direct ft·om the farmers. No middleman is allowed to stand on the way of insunng for the planter a fair return of his produce. Agricu\htt·al technicians help the farmers fight the insects. Averaging 2 wells a day, the pia toon headed by F irst Lieutenant Alfredo M. Quilban and 26 enlisted T~• Author

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