The tINABANGAy in INABANGA

Baul is life, utanon is lifer

In Inabanga, Bohol, baul is life, but utanon is lifer. Or so, they say.

As baul in Tagalog means a treasure chest, in Bohol, interestingly baul or baow is a farm lot, which to some point, means life or death to one who has the inclination to plant or not.

In a town that is still straddled with poverty and hunger especially compounded by the effects of the pandemic, familieshere in Inabanga are taking matters into hands.

Assuring sufficient and the right food for their kids has become a priority with recent survey saying one of every five Filipinos suffer of hunger and malnutrition, which can adversely affect productivity, Inabangnons, in partnership with the local government unit and a consortium of organizations into community based development jointly put up Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK) by solving hunger and securing their food for life.

Families in communities join the ARK Feed Back, 8-week vegetable exchange which engages families to plant vegetables in their backyards and bring at least three kinds of vegetables to the barter market, so they can take home an assortment of bartered vegetables enough to prepare for 3 - 5 meals for 4-5 people in the family.

​Also inspired by old people in the town who still continue to make vegetable farms, Mayor Jose Jono Jumamoy said through engaging his people to plant vegetables, they are assured everyone is fed right, families and kids are more inclined to get back to school and work, to afford them a much better chance in the future.

Vegetable farms, or even gardens help us improve our agriculture and food security where everyone is assured to be fed the most nutritious freshest and healthiest from the gardens, he added during the 8th-week of the project and the culmination activity billed as Utanon Summit.

A town blessed with the occasional inundation of the Wahig-Pamacsalan River, Inabanga has got rich soil that can support vegetable farms which the families, the consortium and the LGU in partnership with barangay governments fund and develop ‘baul (baow) sa tagsatagsa ka pamilya,’ (vegetable farms for every family).

Here, baul is life, the program theme states, underscoring the long history of farming in the town that used to be into organized farming with the Jesuits in the 17th century.

But while every baul may concentrate on crops which would be staple for Boholanos, Inabanga’s modern baul, which also translates to treasure chest in Tagalog, is concentrating on vegetables and fruits.

In the first Utanon Summit (vegetable summit) showcasing the harvest after seven months of project implementation, the town authorities reported some 3,222 families getting regularly fed for the duration, despite the beginnings of a drought that has been damaging crops elsewhere in Bohol.

At certain times, we have to fetch water some 200 meters and bring them up the farm, using containers, if only to make sure the vegetables survive, and we can have food for the barter, shared a mother who gets some help from her kids.

Solbad gyud ang among problema sa sud-anon Sir, gani, mas himsog kay permi na man lang utan, she added.

Here, while most family members tend to the farm, while fathers work elsewhere, the mothers, who are left to take care of the kids have found what used to be additional work, now as a pastime and bonding moment with their kids.

Every few days in a week, we harvest at least three kids of vegetables from our garden and bring them to the purok center where ARK weighs our harvest and divides them into shares. As we come, we are also allowed to pick from any of the assorted vegetables that our neighbors also bring for barter. They pick some of ours, we pick some of their’s.

And to make sure that these vegetables are prepared right, the town also ran a cooking contest in barangays to showcase the most nutritious, best preparation and presentation of prepared food.

In the past 7 weeks, Inabanga families have all generated over a million in barter cost, allowed an average of 4 kilos of vegetables one brings home during the barter and a total harvest weight of over 60,000 kilos.

And certainly enough, with the occasional flooding, communities along the riverbanks have in fact, thought of ways to continue farming, to still get access to food during disasters.

Here, communities thought of coming up with floating gardens, ones that are using recycled pots loaded in bamboo rafts, some gardens sporting trellises that allow vine vegetables to grow.

In response to flooding and the challenges of global warming, our people are exploring possibilities to seek out solutions to our local problems, Mayor Jumamoy shared.

Now at the end of the first cycle, Inabanga Vice Mayor Jumamoy said they are putting up leverage funds to that ARK Feedback could continue and expand to the 34 other barangays in town.

ARK Feedback representative of Chief Operating Officer Ayesha Vera-Yu as well as consortium members shared their excitement for discovering a model that would solve the problem of hunger sustainably.

Vera-Yu, who spoke via teleconferencing, picked Inabanga’s innovations, the people’s talents and brilliant ideas, especially in working for themselves in solving their problems.

During the Utanon Summit, Inabanga organized Vegetable Booth competition for the 16 ARK Barangays, cheering contest, Soltera sa Utanon complete with candidates in Production Number, Vegetable Gowns, Darling of the Crowd, and Question and Answer Portion.

The day was also set for the awarding of barangay showcased vertical gardens winners, Floating Gardens Contest Winners and other fun activities.

It is as if the DNA is there, people of Inabanga said they have to sustain as they know they have to sustain themselves in life, nurtured by tINABANGAy. (PIA-7/Bohol)

FOOD DURING FLOODS. Wahig River in Inabanga may breach its banks and ruin crops but over the years, people have realized they may not stop the river from overflowing, but they can make their gardens float above the floods. (PIABohol/Inabanga ICON)

VEGETABLE LUMPIA AND PATTIES. Inabangnons have make sure that they can get the best out of their produced vegetables, and preparing them to be attractive to kids is a challenge, until they have shared their new skills to get everyone loving vegetables for their health. (PIABohol/Inabanga ICONS)

UTANON BARTER MARKET. Once every few days, vegetable growers here bring three of their planted vegetables to the barter station and in return, they can trade these with other vegetables, bringing home a basket of an average of 4.5 kilos of assorted vegetables. The rest, they display in their booths. (PIABohol)

HEADDRESS? Stringbeasn make up for an interesting head dress during the recent Soltera sa utanon sa Inabanga April 22. The beauty and creativity contest was opened for all women in ARK member communities of the 16 barangays with the project. (PIABohol)

WINNERS ALL. The Women of Inabangas ARK Communities show off their creativity and wit during the Soltera sa Utanon Coronation during the Utanon Summit. (PIAbohol)

New survey reveals 19

hardwood species here

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, April 28, (PIA) –A recent published survey in portions of the Visayas’ last forest frontier showed an amazing presence of trees, which for a long time have been thought of as extinct due to overharvesting.

The survey team led by a University of the Philippines Los Baños professor and taxonomist with Bohol Island State University students rediscovered and documented the presence of white lauaan (Shorea contorta), yakal (Shorea astylosa) and Dalingdingan (Hopea acuminata), which have not been documented since the Spanish period.

Professor Edwino Fernando, along with BISU forestry students Wilbert A. Aureo and Reizl Jose, in a published work entitled Diversity and Composition of Plant Species in the forest over limestone Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape (RSPL) in 2020, documented the dipterocarps which upped the local count in Bohol from 16 to 19, after the study.

Dipterocarps are the kinds of fruit bearing hardwood trees with straight cylindrical boles towering in forests, their names taken from di (double, of sometimes multiple) ptero (wings) carpus (fruits) or fruits with multiple wings, which aid the mature seed in flight for easy natural dispersal and assure the continuity of the species.

The main source of first class timbers, resins and aromatic oils, dipterocarp which used to be called ‘dollar earners,’ are logged for international import trade.

Earlier, Bohol keeps a record of having 16 hardwood dipterocarp species in its forests, according to forester Restituto Piollo Jr., during the recent Kapihan sa PIA on conserving Bohol biodiversity in its forests.

By conservation, Bohol Provincial Environment Management Office (BPEMO) in Charge Jovencia B. Ganub said it is the process of replacing and restoring the species which used to dominate Bohol forests to bring back the diversity of species in the environment.

Ganub, who sits as supervising environmental management specialist in Bohol, bemoaned the introduction of exotic species in Bohol, which are often invasive and have the potential to take over and dominate the landscape, killing the choking the endemic species which measure the bio-diversity of the tropical forests that what we have in Bohol.

Exotic species which were introduced in the country, like gmelina, mahogany, acacia mangium, neem tree, ipil-ipil, indian tree, kapok and still so many introduced tree species that directly compete with native endemic trees and do more harm to the environment than good.

After centuries of over-harvesting and unregulated gathering of timber, Bohol forests shrunk in size, the diversity of species especially for the hardwood kinds, slowly dwindling from every mother tree which is unceremoniously cut.

In the country, we have documented 49 hardwood dipterocarps species, he said, and Bohol has a record of keeping 16 or 32% of the country’s documented hardwoods, Piollo, who heads the Bohol Biodiversity Conservation Center in Roxas Bilar said.

BBCC, a center that operates under the BPEMO has personnel who go around Bohol forests to collect fallen dipterocarp and endemic tree seeds, fruits and gather wildlings from the forests, pot, care and nurture, harden, sort and grade then and then distribute them to tree growing groups.

With the hardwood species in Bohol now documented like white Lauan (Shorea contorta), manggasinoro (Shorea assamica ssp. philippinensis), Guijo (Shorea guiso), Almon (Shorea almon), Mayapis (Shorea palosapis), Tangile (Shorea polysperma), Yakal-malibato (Shorea malibato).

Malaanonang (Shorea polita), Gisok-Gisok (Hopea philippinensis), Yakal saplungan (Hopea plagata), Quisumbing Gisok (Hopea quisumbingiana), Manggachapui (Hopea acuminata), Palosapis (Anisoptera thurifera), Hasselt’s Panau (Dipterocarpus hasseltii), Apitong (Dipterocarpus grandiflorus) and Narig (Vatica mangachapoi), the additional rediscovery of yakal, dalingdingan and lauaan in Bohol forests elevate the local percentage of existing dipterocarps to 38%.

In fact, with the recent documentation only involving a small portion of the RSPL, and did not even include some areas in Bohol where other dipterocarps are documented, Piollo said they are positive the count could even go higher.

Some of the dipterocarps found in Bohol are location specific, reason that some species subsist in different environments and not necessarily in karst environments, make the local foresters at the BBCC confident that they can find more if they can swing away from their usual wildlings explorations which happen only within the vicinity of identified presence of hardwood mother trees. (PIA-7/Bohol)

HOPE FOR THE HARDWOODS. Provincial Environment and Manage Officials (BPEMO) believe that Bohol could have kept more than 19 of the country’s 49 hardwood dipterocarp species as the surveys have not really been widespread and that these have not covered other areas where location specific hardwoods are now subsisting. At the Kapihan sa PIA on biodiversity conservation, BPEMO in charge Jovencia Ganub and biodiversity center chief Restituto Piollo Jr., explained Bohol’s biodiversity restoration projects in its recent tree-growing activities. (PIABohol)

1st Anda Enduro 2023

Leyte enduro biker shreds

Anda trails at 58 km/hour

ANDA, Bohol, April 23, (PIA) – How do you cover 15.85 kilometers in 15.30 minutes in a mountain bike?

Rip the trails like they’re paved. Enduro style.

And it would take Jundel Butal of Team Bolok/Daja Boys of Leyte, a total of 15:30 seconds to wrap up the 15.85 kilometers comprising the three stages of the First Anda Enduro Race 2023; averaging 58.67 kilometers per hour to be the burst through the finish first for the dangerous hard-tail category shredding the Anda enduro trails fit for full suspension bikes.

Meanwhile, after three stages, Calape’s Christian Salomon (ArcBikeCare Racing Factory) in a heavier full suspension bike ripped the same trail in 15:57 seconds to be hailed champion in the Full Suspension category of the race from Barangay Katipunan to Casica, April 23.

In the 40 and up category, EC Cruza Jr., of Bohol Enduro United barged at the finish for their category at 18:04, while Leyte’s Mayan Duyon (Team Bolok) logged her time in the trails at 21:16 to dominate the women’s category

Anda’s homegrown Karl Vincent Jandayan (Team Bunal) first completed the three stages in a collective time of 16:18 to occupy the top podium in the 29 below category.

In the electronic bike category, Jagna’s Oh Mhel (D’ Angkols) finished the three stages in 17:35.

In the hard-tail category, Tagbilaran City’s Ruel Orcullo of ArcFactory Racing and Tribu Tarug Utok (TTU) bagged the second place in the podium with a 16:36 finish, a minute and 6 seconds after Butal.

Also, Tagbilaran City’s Niño Ray Salas of team D’ Angkols, settled for the third podium finish with an aggregate time of 17:23, or nearly a minute after Orcullo’s blistering time in one of the most challenging ‘ride-able’ enduro trails here.

Riding with the fourth best time is Aljhun Asur (ArcFactory Bike Care) with 17:25, after recovering from a flat tire less than a kilometer from the stage 2 starting line, while fifth place is Roy Geanga (Tribu de Amigas S Candijay) in 18:03.

In the full suspension category, rampaging down the twisting trails next to Solomon is Calape’s Vance Gubot Sr., (Trail Seekers/TTU) in 16:12 followed by Cortesanon Loic Barong (Manuthoay Brothers) on the third podium place.

Another Cortesanon, Archt. Niño Rey Angelo Cag-ong of Team TLK at streaked the trails at 17:08 followed by Boho Enduro United’s Jay Jamila at 17:22.

In the 40 and above category, after Cruza came Tagbilaran City’s Arcel Asiñero (ArcBikeCare/TTU) at 18:15 for the second highest podium perch and then came Anda’s Shrie Visaya (Lo Anas) 18:45 for the last podium place.

On fourth is Ariel Metran (D’Angkols) breaking the finish line after stage 3 at 19:43 and Jagna’s Sethniel Siaboc (ArcBikeCare Racing Factory/TTU) at 20:03.

In the 29 and below, Leyteño Panfilo Gabisay Sulad Jr., (D’Angkols) barged through stage three in 17:12, with Tagbilaran city’s Altaire Arcay (Anda Enduro) at 17:30 to complete the podium place.

Fourth is Ezboi Kyn (ArcBike care/TTU) finishing in 17:33 and Jay Clyde Cadiz (Anda Enduro Bikers) at 19:04.

In the women category, another Leyteña Gerevel Riños (Pedal HQ/ BEU/Lo Anas) came out second with a compiled time of 21:33.

In the eBike category, after Jagna’s Oh Mhel came Jagna’s Moyet Alvarez (D’Angkols) at 18:42 after three stages.

Over-all, the entire race attracted some 89 hardcore enduro mountain-bike riders, doing everything to find that speed and pace to win over the down hills with technical sections that are comparable to the Asian Enduro trails in the nearby mountains of Sampoangon, Calape.

Anda Mayor Angelina SImacio, who has picked on mountainbiking as another Anda tourism magnet, promised to support next year’s endure race, even as she challenged organizers and local enduro community to bring out the numbers that could pin extreme mountain biking in her town, from the mountains to the beach. (PIA-7/Bohol)

FOCUS. With riders let-off after every two minutes, one has to be that fast to catch-up and overtake a rider ahead in single trails, but that details the heat of the enduro race that took Andahanons to the race trail to see how fast really is fast in enduro races. (PIABohol)