From plant to plant

How lowland Catigbian robusta

Becomes highly rated PH coffee

He worked most of his adult life in a plant, now that he is retired, his work is still with plants, one that has visibly kept his energy even at 60.

No, it is not that coffee that keeps him awake and athletic, a rarity among retirees whose lifestyle in the metropolis picture them as hunched cane bearing elders.

Meet Eric John Sese, a mechanical engineer by profession, retired, born, raised and schooled in Manila, and even talks like your exclusive schooled but street-smart Manileno.

It was only when he met and married a physician who was working her residency at the Philippine General Hospital that he found himself in a new home, in Zamboanga.

Working then at the National power Corporation overseeing its power plants spread all over the country, Eric, who has described himself as makulit, meticulously observant and a voracious reader did see most of the country and thinks of farming as a retirement pastime.

Since then, possibly due to the innate sense of mechanical engineers to understand the principles and understand it all, he has set his scopes on organic farming, not the one most organic farms spend fortunes to be called organic.

For one, how could he ever grow the country’s top tasting and highly rated green Robusta beans when his farm in Candumayao is just 200 meters above sea level.

A coffee, to be truly decent to be rated fine and not just premium or commercial, should be grown on higher elevations. Grown from the Visayas, his highly rated robusta, is indeed quite a feat.

The best tasting coffee are Arabicas and Robustas.

Arabicas are grown in the high lands, and coffees grown in colder climates, take more time to ripen, and in that time, imbibe all the pleasant sweet tastes.

Meanwhile, Robusta, Arabica’s witty little brother, is often grown in the lowlands would have shorter time to mature into cherry ripe ready to harvest beans, and thus the bitter tasting, creamier caffeinated dose one seeks as an upper.

For Eric, whose 16.7 hectare farm in lowland Candumayao, shouldn’t fare well, against the arabicas in the Cordilleras or Region 1 and Region 12, he did barge into the circle of the best.

His secret? Organic agriculture. Integrated, diversified. Truly organic.

His farm, which his family acquired in 2012, is blessed with his penchant for bringing in choice fruit tree seedlings from Mindanao.

He also has a collection of endemic dipterocarps from Bohol, dwarf hybrid coconuts and even plants endemic to the country sourced out from Luzon. In fact, he keeps a nursery of endemic trees near his yet unfinished coffee processing building.

“I once bought a fern tree in Quezon City, lugged it to Bohol to have it planted only to realize, andami pala nun dito?,” his amazed sheepish expression showing.

Ever since, he knew he was into farming.

When I was with Napocor, one time I took a leave when I was visiting a power plant in Mindanao, and went to Tagum City to join a (coffee growing and production) training offered in collaboration with Nestle, it was free, he shared.

While his idea and his previous readings would dictate that it would be an organic farm he would start, Nestle technicians were into chemical fertilizer. He was dismayed.

But having bought seedlings, he brought them to his farm in Bohol and, as he planned based on his readings, went fully organic.

Setting up a vermiculture, his first problem was sourcing animal manure.

After a while, he realized, buying a few heads of cattle would let him access manure. Then he told his workers, they could actually pasture their cows or carabaos in the farm for free, he just would have the manure.

He, as mechanical engineer also devised a way to make his own vermi tea, a natural liquid fertilizer from worm castings, and he sources out his pesticides and insecticides from the Department of Agriculture.

He also has stingless bees in the farm, to help in the pollination for increased harvest.

His orchards, now already mature, even when hit by Odette, is staring to recover.

The surrounding fruit trees in the coffee farm could have lent their tastes to the coffee where pollinators also bring in the much needed distinct after tastes.

His purely organic farming practice in his coffee has helped him achieve 1.46 metric tons of fine and premium beans per hectare, another rarity envied by robusta farmers whose best production records only hit .6 metric tons.

During the pandemic, Eric enrolled with UP Los Banos Open university, for Organic Agriculture and finished with high distinction. This helped him bolster his resolve to make his farm truly organic.

Now, Eric, who keeps small coffee bean processing in his kitchen in Candumayao, he is already surviving, although he admits, there is still much to be done.

When his beans won the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition, he modestly said he saw 70% increase in his sales, but that is still not enough.

Now selling his fine and premium beans, which his workers carefully handpick, sort out and dry, his patience and lively approach at life has gotten his beans to be brewed in Manila, Quezon City, Cavite and even as far as Singapore, he said.

Next time you are sipping on that coffee you ordered from your favorite barista, savor that aroma, feel the faint hints of the fruits there, and chances are, those are from Finca de Gabriela.

That name is Latin American for Gabrielas Estate, nurtured by a plant manager, a real plant manager. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

NEWLY REJUVENATED COFFEE. A trick to keep the old coffee bushes producing quality beans is to prune them so these could produce new young branches that can bring out the best beans, Noting how cocopeat helps fertilize coffee, Finca de Gabriela uses husks, vermi fertilizer and vermi tea to get the best tasting coffee ever produced in the Visayas. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

PLANT MANAGER STILL. John Eric Sese, a retiree from Manila, used to manage power plants for the NAPOCOR. Now, in his family’s farm in Catigbian, Bohol, he is still managing plants, although this time, organically. Sese manages Finca de Gabriela, which produces the country’s 11th best tasing coffee, the best in the Visayas. (rahc/PIABohol)

BAG OF BEANS. Finca de Gabriela’s half a kilo bag of beans sells at P450, and is currently the one brewed from some of Tagbilaran City’s coffee shops. (PIABohol)

If province remains ASF-free…

Bohol pig growers can profit in

Luzon’s dwindling pork supply

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 12 (PIA) –If there is anything worth looking forward to, African Swine Fever (ASF), when it was first detected in the Philippines in July 2019, has since hit 53 provinces, 704 cities/municipalities, and 3 832 barangays, has opened up the pigpens of opportunity for Bohol backyard hog raisers.

But, being an ASF-free province, prices of live weight of pigs have risen from P110 in January 2020 to P180 in October 2022.

In fact, if one wants the less hassle and shorter time to fatten their piglets, selling them a few months after weaning, as raw material for lechon, gives one the biggest of profit margins.

According to data from the Office of the Provincial veterinarian, from P119 per kilo live weight in January of 2021, the current price is P250 per kilo as of October 2022. This is an increase of P131 per kilo since ASF was declared in some areas in Luzon then.

And for backyard growers who are into butchering and selling the meat, pork price per kilo has since risen from P195 per kilo in January 2021 to PP320, an increase of P125 per kilo as noted last month.

A possible bigger profit may be up with Luzon markets now low on pork supply.

Nearby Zamboanga City is currently wrestling to contain the disease, some 4,365 pigs have died, and more have been culled as the city remains under ASF red zone, the disease present in 34 out of its 98 barangays.

In Sorsogon in the Bicol region in Luzon, veterinary authorities killed 727 pigs from September to October from 238 pig raisers, just to control the spread of the disease.

In the Visayas, while Central Visayas, that is Cebu, Bohol, Negros oriental and Siquijor have remained ASF Free, the situation in southern Leyte, an hour away from Bohol is seemingly desperate.

From March of this year to August of this year, ASF-Task Force teams have culled around 2 500 pigs of 511 pig raisers to stop the spread of the disease.

In the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Industry tracking, as of September 16, only regions 6 and 7 have remained ASF-free. Then, a month later, the first ASF case in Western Visayas Region was reported in Iloilo.

Western Visayas also happens to be one of the biggest suppliers of live pig to Manila, which would be cut off with the disease noted there.

This opens the pen doors for Bohol growers, who continue to ship their live pigs via hog vans and ship them to Manila where the demand is escalating and the supply is dwindling.

Provincial Veterinarian Dr Stella Marie Lapiz also said that when hogs supply in Manila started to get low, Bohol shipped at the peak of COVID, some 3,958 hogs from January to June 2021 and then P13,211 heads in July to December 2021.

By 2022, from January to June, Bohol shipped out 14,468 head and then 4,970 head in July to September.

The market is really big and for Bohol growers to benefit from it however, it is imperative that everyone do their share in making sure Bohol remains ASF free so we could continue shipping out and profit, Dr. Lapiz stressed. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

NEW MARKET POTENTIAL. With Boholanos holding each other to guard its shorelines against the threatening African Swine Fever which has the potential to butcher the billion peso hog industry in Bohol, Provincial Veterinarian and ASF Action Officer sees a market potential for Bohol hogs in Luzon. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

Legalize, tourism transport chair

tells ‘colorum tourist van’ drivers

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 12 (PIA) –With open arms and a bundle of irresistible package of assistance dangling from his hands, a key tourism transport official here invited colorum transport operators who are moonlighting in tour transport to go legal by joining the cooperative.

Instead of getting mad at the unfair competition these private vehicles serving without the necessary franchise and accreditation from appropriate government agencies, Bohol Transport Cooperative chair Joselino Jojo Baritua, said they can help by making their operations legal.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA Friday, Baritua, who also sits as Provincial Tourism Council Tourist Transport Committee head, revealed that of the over 500 units of vehicles operating from over 30 Department of Tourism (DOT) accredited tourist transport providers, a much bigger number is running their business as usual using private vehicles in their colorum businesses.

In the past, the tension between the DOT accredited and the colorum vehicle operators has caused a rift as colorum vehicle drivers accept tours at a cheap price in unfair competition.

Normally, vehicles obtained at zero-down-payment schemes and offered for private use do not get Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board franchise and Department of Tourism accreditation.

All they need is to recover the cost of fuel and the day’s driver’s pay.

Moreover, illegal tourist vehicles swoop down and beat the legal operators to the draw through several schemes, scams and blatant ploys.

For Baritua, instead of slamming the doors on these nefarious schemes, he said, “We do not close the doors, kay lahi man gud, probably they have not seen the right group, association or cooperative nga ilang apilan.”

Some of the new players in the tourist transport sector have no idea that they would need the LTFRB franchise and DOT accreditation, only to find that there are no more available slots in the cooperatives memberships.

Baritua cites a relevant administrative order and the Omnibus Franchising Guidelines in relation with the Public Utility Vehicles Modernization Program which ordered on the tourism transport side, that a tourist transport operator be granted a LTFRB franchise and eventual DOT accreditation when he can register 10 brand new vehicles for accreditation.

Colorum vehicle owners see this as a major obstacle in registering their units, discouraging them.

The solution then is for these small unit operators to organize themselves and join existing cooperatives, associations or corporations to be assisted to be legally registered.

But then, several registered cooperatives have closed their memberships, and only when a unit could not be registered will an opening come. Here, the new member would have to pay the franchise of the exiting member.

The current price is P50,000, according to Baritua.

“Because of this, lots of discouraged players and are now operating without accreditation,” he said.

A much cheaper option for these individual private vehicle owners is to join us at Bohol Transport Coop, with a minimal membership of P500, he dangled the bait.

Emphasizing that sustainable tourism in Bohol can only work with everyone helping each other, the tourist transport official asked what would happen when a colorum vehicle meets an accident?

Without the insurance coverage for vehicles for hire, the tourist can get short-changed on insurance claims and compensation.

“In the coop, we have liaisons who would be making sure all members’ vehicle documents are in order, franchise and accreditation active and spare the owners of the hassle of following up registrations, franchise applications and all paper works,” he promised.

Seeing a huge challenge in the operation of colorum vehicles, he however has some optimism to offer.

He pressed that the sector is working in line with the government’s goal of inclusive economic recovery, and that they can help make things right.

To tourists and to locals, as a matter of advice, he said make sure that you’re riding a legally compliant transport, for your peace of mind.

And to tourist transport players, he urged. Let us help protect our industry, because whatever happens, it is the image of Bohol at stake. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

UNDUE COMPETITION. While many legal tourism vehicle operators see the colorum vehicles as undue competition, Baritua leaves a door open for them to legalize through a cooperative rather than continue their business as usual and then, when accidents happen, passengers’ insurance are denied as these illegally run vehicles are registered as private and not for hire. This would certainly ruin the image of Bohol, says Baritua, who sits as the Tourism Council Tourism Transport Chair. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

ADVICE FOR THE WISE. For tourists coming to Bohol, make sure that you are in a legally compliant transport vehicle and DOT accredited operator, as by this, you are assured of safe and secured service from the sector that truly protects the industry, says Jojo Baritua, Bohol Transport Cooperative chair. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Gov. Aris reactivates coastal protection

monitoring program, CLEC mechanisms

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 11 (PIA) –Again, considering that managing its coastal and marine resources is best implemented by a tightly knit network of local government units, Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado reconstitutes the coastal protection and monitoring program through its law award winning Bohol Coastal law Enforcement Council (CLEC) and provides mechanisms and implementing funds.

Through Executive Order No 47, which he signed October 24, 2022, the governor has also made more relevant the initial Memorandum of Agreement signed in 2001, between and among the Provincial Government, municipal and city local governments, national government agencies and non-government organizations setting up the Bohol CLEC.

CLEC is the brilliant measure which Bohol adopted in 2001, when it met tough issues in the implementation of the Fisheries Code of the Philippines through Republic Act 7160.

As the Fisheries Code gets implemented, heavily outnumbered marine law enforcement agencies play cat and mouse with poachers, illegal fishers and violators of the law, while marginal fishers end up with nothing to barely subsistence catch, endangering the regions resource management.

With Section 3 (g) in relation to 3(i) of the Local Government Code of 1991 which mandates the capabilities of LGUs especially municipalities and barangays by providing them opportunities to participate actively in the implementation of national programs and projects, by sharing in the responsibility of management and maintenance of the ecological balance, Bohol adopted a multi-sectoral CLEC, which plugged marine law implementation loopholes.

“There were times when national agencies separately operate to implement marine protection laws, while they do have the resources, they too sometimes fall into the trap of politics, especially when apprehending illegal fishers who are also campaign leaders of local politicians,” shared a former maritime police officer.

A case shared during a law enforcement summit years back detail how apprehending bantay dagat fish wardens, operating on their own, get entangled with a commercial fisher with fishers armed to the teeth.

The decision to unify a multi sectoral coastal law enforcement team appealed generally well to fish wardens who in their operations now, are joined by representatives of the Philippine National Police like the station commander, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Justice, Philippine Coast Guard, Maritime Police, National Bureau of Investigation, lawyers, Provincial Agriculture, local officials, non government organizations and even other sectors.

“It is always easy to talk your way out of an apprehension with just a few people, or bribe your way out of the mess, but with a multi-sectoral and inter-town clustered council, it is not going to be easy,” an environmental lawyer who joined the apprehending party added.

The most common issue is when poaching fishermen from another town are chased by marine law enforcers. As soon as they cross town boundaries, fish wardens lose the authority over the jurisdiction, that with the CLEC, the cluster town representatives tend to retain jurisdiction because representatives of the next town is also among the boarding party.

Section 5 of the new Executive Order names 8 CLEC Clusters in Bohol tasked to implement the program. They are Tagbilaran City for Cluster 1, Cortes, Maribojoc, Loon, and Calape for Cluster 2, Tubigon, Clarin, Inabanga and Buenavista for Cluster 3.

Cluster 4 includes Getafe, Talibon, Trinidad, Bien Unido and President Carlos P. Garcia, while Cluster 5 includes Ubay, Mabini and Candijay and Cluster 6 are Anda, Guindulman, Duero and Jagna.

Cluster 7 has Valencia, Garcia Hernandez, Dimiao and Lila and Cluster 8 has Loat, Alburquerque, Baclayon, Panglao and Dauis.

Each of these clusters are headed by a cluster chairperson and its members include mayors of the member towns, vice mayors, SB chairs on Agriculture, SB Chairs on Environment, municipal agriculturists, MENRO, coastal resource management officers of each town, fishery technicians, information officers, Police Environment Officers, BFAR, DENR Penro, PCG, PNP Maritime Group, Legal Officer, NGO representative, MFARMC chairs, coastal barangay captains, SK chairs, Purok leaders in coastal barangays, tanods and POs or marine protected area management council representative. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, TOURISM. Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado discusses with British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils possible areas of cooperation between the two states in terms of environment protection, resource management and sustainable tourism, even as the governor signed Executive Order No. 47 which reconstitutes in the CLEC its coastal protection and monitoring program. With the governor and the ambassador is provincial Administrator Asteria Caberte and Bohol Provincial Environment Management Officers. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

Amb Beaufils asks media to

‘pressure’ for Climate Change

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 9 (PIA) –British ambassador to the Philippines, Laure Beaufils calls on the local journalists to help spread the news about investing in climate change adaptation measures to exert more pressure to policy makers, leaders and governments to walk the talk.

In a press conference at the Amarela Resort, November 4, the ambassador, who separately met with Congressman Edgar Chatto and Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado to discuss areas of potential cooperation and alliances on climate change, cited a World Bank report that paints a grim scenario if governments continue its disregard plans for adaptation and mitigation.

This report finds that “on a business as usual trajectory, unless there are significant changes made in terms of budgeting and policies and programs on adaptation, the cost of climate change to the economy would be 7.6% of the Gross Development Products by 2030, and by 2040, its 11.4% of the GDP,” the ambassador who is in her first visit to Bohol stressed.

Visibly impressed at what she was witnessing and hearing about Bohol’s initiatives on environment preservation and conservation, Ambassador Beaufils said that if more than 10% of the GDP is spent on adaptation-related costs, some development priority areas would definitely have reduced budgets, if things continue on a business-as-usual scenario.

This means, instead of funding more projects, the allocated funds could go to repair, rehabilitation and response, when the damage triggered by climate would have been reduced, if the LGU has invested on adaptation.

While Bohol has in its recent Executive Legislative Agenda crafting steered towards climate-smart agriculture and infrastructure, the bold step needs to be followed through and through as traditional budgeting policies has a way of nixing with these new policy directions, an observer of the newly crafted plan commented.

“If you choose to adopt now, and invest on adaptation now, you can reduce the cost on the GDP, but it requires action,” she emphasized adding that the journalists here can play a great role in writing news about this, exerting pressure on to leaders and policy makers to act on the issue and walk the talk.

Several leaders and policy makers however think that the all-encompassing issue of climate change has been over-rated and is just a creation of the mind.

In Bohol, the issue has pushed Bohol Congressman Edgar Chatto, House of Representatives Chair for the Committee on Climate Change to encourage local government units to declare climate change emergency.

This as several of the province’s islets have already experienced sea levels rise and never been experienced before tidal surges that have breached their homes.

Typhoons have also become more powerful, which the unusually heavy rains off its season, have caused massive flooding and damaged crops, infrastructure and claimed lives.

And if LGUs continue to scoff at climate change and keep on to their business as usual attitude, in a decade, their budgets for development would be less than 11%, and this goes to unprecedented costs of post disaster response, which could have been prevented had the LGUs invested more on adaptation measures.

With this, the ambassador for the United Kingdon to the Philippines, who has identified herself as somebody strongly biased to sustainable environment through protection and conservation suggests LGUs to invest in climate resilient agriculture, disaster mitigation, investing in reforestations, addressing illegal mining and illegal deforestation, putting in place mangroves and moving communities when appropriate.

This however takes so much more in guts than the glory it would cause in the future.

Several of these adaptation measures take huge budgets, strong political will and innovative governance.

Relocation of high disaster-risk communities entail LGU investments on the resettlement site, on making the area habitable, connecting it to markets and highway access, and other infrastructure support.

While these also entail funding support, the British Government revealed its potential funds for projects in climate change adaptation side. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

INVEST IN ADAPTATION NOW. British ambassador Laure Beaufils met Gov Aumentado and Bohol environment officials to discuss possible areas of cooperation between the British Government and the province in furtherance of its environment protection and conservation efforts. (RAHC/PIA_7/Bohol)

SP amends rehab term for

PWUDs in the CBRP WOW

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 11 (PIA) – As a measure to harmonize the duration of rehabilitation of persons who use drugs (PWUD) based on their affectation based on the locally crafted ordinance and the recent Regional manual to guide the implementation of the community based drug rehabilitation program, the provincial legislative under Vice Governor Dionisio Victor Balite is poised to introduce the necessary amendments.

It may be recalled that Bohol Sangguniang Panlalawigan in 2017, enacted Provincial Ordinance No 2007-004, which adopts the Community-based drug rehabilitation program Without-walls (CBRP-WoW).

Well, the move was to provide a comprehensive drug rehabilitation program aimed at providing holistic approach for drug users to save them from wasting their lives, through therapeutic methods, while redeveloping their physical, emotional, psychological, social, economic and spiritual strengths on their way to the mainstream, explained Vice Governor Balite.

The ultimate motive is to achieve a “Drug Free Community or Family” through proper evaluation and determination by appropriate government agencies and stakeholders, based on the ordinance preamble.

Putting the preservation of life as the anchor of the program, CBRP-WoW allows the person who use drugs, be they deeply dependent or a first user, the chance to change through and steer his life away from dangers, and surviving on the support of the family, community, to work together to hand-hold the person back to the mainstream.

Back then in 2017, Bohol’s CBRP WoW, specifically its section 4 which talks of the duration of the program lays down two rehabilitation durations: 3 months program for those assessed as low-risk drug users, not violent and of sound mind; and 5 months program for those assessed as moderate-risk and of sound mind.

The more serious cases would have to be placed under a medical institution for a more intense rehabilitation program.

Recently however, the Department of Health, Central Visayas Center for Health Development, Region VII saw the need to bridge the gap between the knowledge of the nature of drug use and drug dependence and the implementation of the various approaches needed to be done in the various levels of care.

With this, the CHD in Region 7 issued a regional Guidance Manual on CBRP for PWUDs (PWUDs) in Central Visayas to address issues and concerns on provision of services especially at the community level where a greater percentage of those affected needs primary health care.

Instead of the simplified classification and duration of the rehabilitation, and based on the need to fit the ordinance to the regional manual, SP in Bohol, with the sponsorship of Board Member Tomas Abapo, proposes to amend the section to accommodate the general intervention program for PWUDs.

And in line with the regional manual, Bohol proposes to put up a 1 month rehabilitation program for “Low-Risk” PWUDs or those having “mild substance disorder” and for those who voluntarily gave themselves up to authorities. The sessions however would depend also on the way the PWUD is coping and may be extended based on the individual performance.

These would be in eight 8 sessions with PNP personnel who graduated from the Training of Trainors (TOT) for CBRP either as Interventionists and Facilitators.

And then, there is a 4-month program intended for “Moderate Risk” where sessions run to 4 months, conducted in 20 sessions.

The ordinance, when passed in its amended form, would now have a provision for CBRP for those who have been apprehended and mandated by the courts to undergo rehabilitation.

It says that a 6-month program would be implemented for court mandated PWUDs who have Mild Substance Dependency after undergoing a Drug Dependency Examination (DDE), and this would have sessions longer than 6 months.

Such is so because the first 4 months would be the General Intervention and Community-Based Treatment and the remaining months will focus on the Social Support Group Sessions, with an over-all sessions numbering 28.

With this, the SP is expected to pass the amended version to align its CBRP to that of the programs of the national government on the way to attaining a “Drug-free Philippines.”

All of those who would be classified under which category, would be based on the screening result of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Tool – Brief Intervention (ASSIST – BI) or the Drug Dependency Examination (DDE) to be administered by an accredited duly trained medical professional in the Rural Health Unit (RHU). (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

HARMONIZING BOHOL’S DRUG REHAB PROGRAM WITH DOH. Board member and lawyer Tomas Abapo sponsors the ordinance that amends the CBRP-WOW ordinance of 2017, and providing longer rehab terms for those PWUDs found by the courts fit to be under a more thorough mainstreaming, for a drug-free Bohol. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)