Nador Moneza’s secret:

money from dairy, daily

We came to a small house on the edge of a road that parallels a diversion canal in Purok 8, Katipunan, Alicia one Saturday afternoon. The house, while small and needing repair, exudes an aura of warmth and family comfort.

Behind it is another equally small house, complete with drying laundry characteristic of Boholano houses on Saturday afternoons.

This should be a house extension for a married son or daughter.

Dominador Moneza and his family lives here in a small fenced lot, a small motorcycle washing shop on one end of the fence, and small store that serves the needs of neighbors is temporarily shut for the day.

The few flower pots randomly placed on flimsy racks, or planted directly on the ground betrayed the plantita who is residing the house. Later, we found out it was a plantito. Dominador himself is a sworn green thumb, a luck the wife does not possess.

Behind the house are vast rice fields bordered by mango trees.

No one was at home. That time, Nador, short for Dominador, 47 years old from nearby Bulilis in Ubay and his wife Julieta 45, of San Pascual, also in Ubay were joining in for a bayanihan harvest some few farms away, so we learned later.

Harvest should have been sufficient if they owned the land they are tilling.

A study by the Department of Agrarian Reform shares that a family with three children could live comfortably from a three-hectare rice field.

With the nearby National Irrigation Authority canal bringing in abundant water from the nearby Malinao Dam, it should be more than enough.

Nador and Julieta have three kids, one died of hydrocephalus and a married daughter and her family as well as unmarried son, lives with them.

But Nador and Julieta are no land owners here.

They just came here from Ubay, to take care of the Aumentado property, some 3 hectares of rice fields, a few hectares of root crops: camote, cassava and coconut trees, 9 hectares all in all.

“Nindot pod og ani dinhing dapita, usahay lang, kon dili mabantayan, atakehon sa dangan, amo nga mohinay ang kita, mao nga gamay ra gyud ang mabahin,” Harvest is good, however, if you are not cautious, pests can attack and Nador shared, no sooner when the couple arrived, nearly four in the afternoon.

Like this cropping, stem-borers got into the growing palay, speaking in Cebuano vernacular, Nador picked a rice head sticking out from the nearby paddy and showed a chaff-filled bunch.

“We salvaged a few from the harvest, but then this would be a hard season,” he continued, even as his son arrived bringing in half a sack of palay waste from the threshers. From the half a sack, the family hopes to save a few kilos worth of rice which supplements the family table.

But no matter how hard they would feel it, the Monezas still rank a bit better than the rest who are in the same predicament.

Beneficiaries of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) at the Ubay Stock Farm Dairy Buffalo Module (DBM), Nador and wife Julieta joined hands, not only in marriage but in taking care of the female carabaos they milk to contribute to Bohol’s dairy production.

“It was in 2015, when the late Dr. Benjamin Bernales, explained and convinced us to try the carabao dairy production when one female gave birth to a calf. For five months after birth, we were able to get a liter of milk, in excess of what the calf needs.” Nador narrated.

The carabao, of native breed, was not the ideal carabao for dairy production but learning the technology of harvesting milk was what the Monezas got. Later information revealed that while native carabaos gives little milk, the milk is ideal for the Filipino white cheese, the milk contains more solids and fats.

Years later, they were into more female crossbred carabaos included in the DBM of the PCC.

“The more carabaos we got, the more milk we can get especially when the PCC gave to us crossbreds which is ideal in milk production. But then again, we have to develop napier patches so there would be sufficient feeds to fatten the females while nursing the calf,” he said.

From a liter a day in the duration of the calving, the Moniezas gathered an average of 6 liters a day when their five native carabaos give birth to a calf alternately. Monezas plan to expand their dams some more.

With about a year of gestation period, the Monezas have at least two carabaos giving off six liters of milk every day for the whole year.

A calving female can continue to give milk for five months, and then its body would again prepare for another estrus cycle, when the dam or female carabao has to be fed right to increase its milk yield, explains PCC at the Ubay Stock Farm center director Dinah Loculan, in one radio forum at the Kapihan sa PIA.

Nador said he has a crossbred dam that gives at least eight liters of milk a day.

“Another good thing about dairy production is the obvious cash flow with the calf,” Dr Laculan added.

A good health year old calf can fetch P30,000, while the native calves can go depending on its health, from P15,000 to P25,000, which we can sell to PCC via a special “buy back” arrangement.

Besides, the PCC has its collecting van rounding up dairy farmers’ milk regularly, so the milk immediately goes to the processing center and nothing is wasted.

“Dako mi kaayo og pasalamat sa PCC, dako kaayo og ikatabang sa akong inadlaw adlaw nga maintenance sa tambal ang halin sa gatas,” Julieta who suffers from high blood pressure and a heart problem shares.

At P50.00 a liter, farmers here in Ubay, Pilar, Mabini. Alicia, San Miguel and some more expansion towns are joining in the bandwagon, according to the PCC.

But not all interested farmers see the logic of dairy farming, Moneza revealed.

“Bisan pa kon insured ang among kabaw sa Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, kinahanglan pod og dyutay nga kakugi, kinahanglan maalimahan og sakto, pakan-on og sakto ug itugway aron makaexercise,” Nador talked from experience.

Short of this, carabao dairy production would fail.

“Daghan pod kaayo og nanguha sa programa, daghang moseminar, pero ang ilang tumong, kanang dinali-an nga makuha. Wala sila magkwenta nga taas ka kinahanglan nga pasensya kon magkabawan, Julieta,” who is more outspoken, volunteers.

Ang paggalam sa kabaw, kinahanglan ka nga kugihan, she insists.

For the Monezas however, their little success is never a question of hardwork, it is more of persistently getting the most out of their time, something ordinary farmers may not really do. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

One thing that farmers should have if they intend to go and take this business is patience and hard work, says Dominador Moneza, a carabao dairy farmer. (rahc/PIA-7/BOhol)

JOINING HANDS IN MARRIAGE AND DAIRY. Julieta (45) joins Nador (47) in taking care of their female carabaos and calves, their main source of daily income. While a carabao giving birth to a calf can be a good source of fast cash, selling male calves and keeping the females are their next option to increase their dairy production and income.

REGULAR GRAZING. Nador Moneza also learned that a regular gazing of the female carabao dramatically increases its milk yield, apart from giving the animal the exercise it needs after being tied to a milk shed for periods of feeding and milking. (rahchiu/PIA07/Bohol)

DAIRY DAILY. Dominador Moneza, a Philippine Carabao Center Daily Buffalo Module, has since gained at least P300 additional income every day and is set to increase when the PCC increases the buying price for a liter of milk to P70. Keeping five female carabaos and milking them from giving birth until the calves are five months old, one crossbred can yield 6 to 8 liters daily. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

CentCom condemns NPAs for 

ambush of peace volunteers in Bohol

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, May 2 (PIA) -- The Central Command (CentCom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Boholano peace-loving communities condemned the atrocities committed by the Communist Party of the Philippines New Peoples’ Army (CPP-NPA) terrorists who mercilessly attacked and killed unarmed civilian volunteers in Bohol on April 26, 2021.

In a videotaped statement, CentCom Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Roberto T. Angcan said “the NPA's killing of Sambayanan volunteers Rolando Fornes and Jaime Cagatin and wounding of Michael Hinampas and Antonio Muring only revealed the true nature of the terrorists and bandits masquarading in their schemes.”

“They were there to talk to the people, because we have realized it is not through arms but through peaceful discussion that we can bring peace and development,” said Bernard Banal, Sambayanan member and team leader of the slain former cadres.

Banal, who spent eight years in the armed movement, realized the lies he himself used to agitate the people have also exposed the evils of the NPAs.

He has long rejoined the mainstream and offered his life to amend his past by exposing the schemes of the NPA in gaining the confidence of poor communities they can milk.

A squad of the communist terrorist NPAs waited the whole afternoon for four former rebels who are now government volunteer members of the Sentrong Alyansa ng Mamamayan para sa Bayan (Sambayanan) who were in a meeting with Purok 5 residents in Brgy. Aloja in Batuan.

Sambayanan, also generally identified as anti-communists group here, is a multi-sectoral alliance formed by former rebels and cadres of the CPP-NPA-NDF after they returned to the fold of the law.

As Sambayanan pushes for genuine peace and development in support of Executive Order No. 70 signed by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte in December 2018, the former rebels were exposing the evil ways of the NPAs to convince the masses to withdraw their support and resist the terrorists as a means to end local communist armed conflict (ELCAC).

From the meeting, when the volunteers were to go home on board two motorcycles to the next town Carmen, they were waylaid at a lonely stretch of the road not far from their meeting venue a little past 5:00 p.m.

The first motorcycle driver, Rolando Fornes, was hit but managed to escape from being pinned by the motorcycle.

His back rider, Michael Hinampas, dove off to the roadside bushes and managed to stay away from the line of fire into safety.

Upon the second shot, Jaime Cagatin, who drove the second motorcycle a few meters behind with Antonio Muring in tandem, were hit and crashed.

Cagatin was hit in his feet while Muring was hit in the arm. Both were still able to maneuver to safety, but only Muring managed to move away where he sought high ground to call for help.

From their vantage points, the surviving former rebels saw how the communist terrorists finished off Fornes and Cagatin, who were unarmed civilians.

“In my assessment, the NPAs are hurt by what we at Sambayanan are doing and Boholanos are now rejecting them. They desperately want to regain the fear by putting on tactical offensives with police, army or any state authority,” Banal said.

Survivors have allegedly identified the perpetrators and authorities are now pursuing those leads.

“We shall see to it that the NPA terrorists responsible for this dastardly attacks shall be brought to justice,” vowed Angcan, adding that the Philippine Army mourns the deaths of the peace workers and that they are assisting the families in laying their dead to final rest.

He also assured: "Your Central Command fully supports the people and the development initiatives of our dear stakeholders in providing genuine peace and security to communities, not only in Bohol but also for the whole Visayas as we to put an end to this local communist armed conflict." (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

SAMBAYANAN MEMBERS DO IT BETTER. Sambayanan members, mostly rebel returnees, possess the convincing power of coming to the discussion than the language of firearms. Here, a rebel returnee talks about how the NPAs manipulate situations to leverage for emotional support from poor communities who can feed them. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

SAMBAYANAN TEAM LEADER. Then an active rebel, Bernard Banal is now one of the most vocal campaigners against the rebel's lies and their terroristic acts. He said what they are doing has hurt the communist terrorists that they are desperate to hold the line of their men. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Rebel returnee in Bohol says NPA 

uses agitation strategy to play 

with people’s emotions

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, April 27 (PIA) – Agitation as a strategy to keep discontent high.

This is how the New People’s Army of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front survive, feeding on the people’s discontent and preying on their helplessness to force them to rise in arms against the government.

The confession was among the information which a former rebel Virgilio Quisto, shared moments before he has to give his testimony of the government’s goodwill to people like him who made the decision to take the path of peace.

Then, it was always easy to hit the raw nerve of the poor people, because we trained for that. Now, however, no matter how good agitation is, somehow, the government can easily get and appease the sentiments of the people.

Ang ila, programa alang sa kagubot, wala silay Department of Agrarian Reform nga tinuod nga manghatag og yuta, wala silay programa alang sa mga kabus, ang ila, ang pagdakop sa emosyon sa tawo aron mo-alsa, Quisto said amidst hundreds of land reform beneficiaries accepting their Certificates of Land Ownership Awards and Agricultural Free Patents in a program during the service caravan in San Vicente, Trinidad.

Quisto, whose family received 2.14 hectares of land which they have cultivated since they occupied a portion of the government sequestered lands of the abandoned Bohol Cattle Corporation, spoke for his mother Consorcia

The former rebel shared that he joined the rebels in Surigao del Sur in 1987 and for 12 years, he went up the mountains or rested in his home when there were no offensives.

Sensing that the government was getting serious in cracking down on the underground movement in Surigao, he, along with his family, went home to Bohol.

It was the government’s offensive against the rebels and overhead, we could see cannonballs flying and exploding in the hills, he shared, before they decided to make it to Bohol.

As an active rebel in the movement, his arrival to Bohol found him in a rather comfortable situation. Assigned to Bohol Guerilla Front 3 based in the mountains of Maribojoc, Loon, San Isidro, Calape Tubigon and Antequera, Quisto said he was there during the encounter in Tan-awan in 1995, Tubigon, when he said they had two casualties.

By 2016, he went down the mountains and joined the legal fronts, for reasons he did not specify.

Between 2019 and 2020, Quisto again went active in the Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda operating in the forests of Bilar, Batuan and nearby towns.

But admitting he is too old for the mountain treks, and sensing the disillusionment and the empty promises he got from the movement, he decided to make it to the lowlands and live in peace.

A member of the provincial association of rebel returnees, Quisto now helps the government in convincing his former comrades to take the same way he did.

With Talibon Trinidad Farmers Association (TTIFA), Quisto along with the organization’s president Rowena Eronico, started to regain the trust of their members, who were then organized to agitate the government in the issue of land reform, anti oil-palm, poverty and alleged militarization.

In 2020, it was hard to get the sympathy of TTIFA, but then, persistent paid off because we are now getting majority of our members back, TTIFA president Eronico said.

Wala na ba diay gyuy luna sa inyong kasingkasing ang tinabangay ug hangopay sa masa?

(Do we not have space in our hearts for cooperation, for brotherhood as men?

Wala na tay rason pa, kay ania na ang atong gitagna niadto nga dili madayon. Ania na, nagpang-apod-aporan na kita sa yuta, ug dili ang kalihukan ang nakahimo niini.

We do not have any reasons anymore, the time has come, the one we said would never happen, is here and we are given ots, not by the underground movement, but by the government we downplayed before, Quisto belted out.

Mabuhi ang mga mag-uuma, Mabuhi ang DAR, he summed. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

RESTORING WHAT HAS BEEN ruined. Rebel returnee Virgilio Quisto narrated how they manipulate people’s sentiments to keep them feeding the kindling of dissent into an unquenchable fire to properl enough disruption of services to revolt. (rahchiu/PIA_7Bohol)

CAPS OFF. A rebel returnee places hi life at risk speaking in public against the underground movement, but forQuisto, the lies have to stop because many young lives have been lost in the senseless revolution. (rahchiu/PIA_7/Bohol)