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Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Writ 07 May 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Writer was former Livelihood Coordinator of the Ministry of Human Settlements, PAC Gonzaga, from July 1981-June 1982. In Jan. 82 he was designated Acting Deputy Provincial Manager, concurrent with the livelihood post.]

Let me go through with my continuing journey as a young development professional, and transport you this time to the town of coastal town of Ballesteros in Cagayan. This town is famous for its crustaceans, notably crabs and lobsters. Let me stress here that the crabs and lobsters were huge by size compared to the ordinary, making them worth writing.

In the last quarter of 1982 my agency then, the MHS, finally recruited, trained and deployed Municipal Staff Assistants or MSAs. It was a great relief to acquire the “new kids on the block”, as it lifted so many burdens from us provincial staff, both technical and communicative (information dissemination of the KKK). From Ballesteros came this lanky young male staff (name now escapes my memory), with long ‘babalo’ chin. He was a no mean staff, to recall.

Mr. Bubbles (that’s how I jokingly call ‘babalo’ long chin folks) brought to my attention right away the huge potentiality of expanding crustacean production in his town. Unfazed by his rather dynamic explanation, who was almost gyrating like Elvis Presley during his presentation, I arranged for some consultations with fish farmers there (crustacean producers who operated onshore) as well as municipal fishers (who operated offshore). I simply wished to verify what my staff had reported to me then.

I found out that my staff did presented information in as truthful a manner as possible, verifying every millimeter of his report to the dot. I then arranged a visitation to the coastal area to see for myself what things were in there. To my own shock (I do get this feeling in the field at times), I realized that their ‘gears’ for fish farming was appallingly primitive (hmmm this is what I got for being an acculturated Big City boy in Manila: culture shock at local life). They used guava twigs that were planted below the sea level, after which the fish farmers would pick them up, with the ‘victims’ riding on the twigs.

As usual, my team’s task was to conceptualize what innovation to introduce there. That’s why our job is called ‘development’. To recoup from my initial shock (I really had to criticize myself silently), I quickly arranged for consultations with the technical staff of the BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources) who became our constant partners in the area (they were so elated at our arrival there), as well as the professors of the Cagayan State University (CSU) –Gonzaga branch (agriculture & fisheries campus). From the consultations and research of my staff, we pieced up information about the techno-component that would be simple to operate and utilize local resources for inputs.

Since we already had municipal fishing with bagoong making in Gonzaga, my team, with the nod of our BFAR partners, decided to focus crustacean fish farming in Ballesteros. So we had this double task of convincing the municipal fishers in the town to sideline as fish farmers if they wish to benefit from the KKK enterprise finance program there.

Our simple innovation introduced to them was the ‘fish cage’, or ‘crustacean trap’. It was made of wooden and tree branches, with grill-fashioned openings to let the smaller crabs & lobsters get in, where they’d stay and feed. As soon as they grew in size, it was difficult for them to go out if at all (experiments have shown they don’t go out as they acclimatize to the domicile). Simple indeed, but so sensible as it increased the yield of the marine farmers.

We also had to convince the fish farmers to apply as individual proponents. The parameters in the area were different from that of neighbor Gonzaga where offshore fishing was the primary engagement. It was more fruitful if each individual would work on his ‘crustacean yard’ (by the sea), though collectively they would have to secure the area together (there are always thieves everywhere, remember).

Project approval was fast for this one. I don’t recall now the exact figures per project. But my recall is sharp regarding the approval, financing, re-training of fish farmers, take-off, and the most important: taste of the final result. The lobsters and crabs using the traps were even larger than the previous pre-trap days! I’m sure you’d agree with me that these crustaceans warm up the heart and brighten your day when you see, feel and taste them.

Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Writ 12 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former community development assistant at the Ministry of Human Settlements, Region II, in early 1981.]

If Bob Marley were alive today and visited Mayoyao in Ifugao, Cordillera region, he might achieve euphoria even without having to smoke pot. And his cause for Dionysiac wonderment would be: a fishpond atop a mountain. And he’d declare wide-eyed, with nary a 2^nd thought, that “the Ifugaos are a free people! Hail Ifugaos!”

Free indeed is this sturdy ethnicity of highlanders, who used to be ferocious head-hunters and were dreaded by the Americans. They have since become tame, no longer do head-hunting, and have instead hunted for tons of bright ideas to multiply their survival chances up in the boondocks.

I was then a newly hired program staff for the Ministry of Human Settlements’ Regional Liaison Office in Region II or RLO-2. We covered the whole of Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao. As soon as I had a couple of days of briefing as a new staff, I immediately buzzed off for field work to monitor our community services at the town levels where we have deployed community organizers who were dubbed the HSOs (Human Settlements Officers).

Over 250 kilometeres south of Tuguegarao, the location of our liaison office (we were an adjunct of the central office in the region), was Ifugao which had to be traversed via Nueva Vizcaya. Armed with my monitoring sheets, itinerary, cassette recorder with The Police and Sex Pistols playing, and an escort of truly-armed Philippine Constabulary (our regional supervisor was Gen. Olivas of PC Region II), I visited couples of HSOs in Vizcaya for a day first, after which I proceeded to Mayoyao.

Well, the road to Ifugao was narrow, winding and gravel-rough, and only single-lane. And down below was crevice, hard rock, or some cursed dangerous vertical wall that King Kong would hate to scale. And my balls (excuse me) quickly moved from down loin up to past my head, as the goose bumps overwhelmed my being till we reached Mayoyao 40 kilometers from Banawe.

The recompense for the rough and hazardous ride was the beautiful scenery, so grand and beautiful beyond words. The best-looking rice terraces are found here, not in Banawe that is merely the entry point. And, without doubt, the fish pond built atop a mountain whose peak was leveled for the purpose.  

How many places on Earth could one find fishponds that are not only impossible to build but also costly? And this one was built from concrete. Rectangular in shape, around it was classy cobble-like stone and cement aisle. Below is the pond, around two (2) meters deep, with the fingerlings just seeded. Covering around one (1) hectare in size or so, it was actually more of an experimental prototype, though the town residents thought of producing at commercial levels. Tilapia was the experimental species, to recall.

The Cordillerans are truly a wonderful people in terms of innovativeness in thriving. They’ve already chiseled out the mountains into productive rice lands. Now they followed through with fish farming, and of all places, atop a mountain.

The project, installed by cooperating agencies (mayor’s office, MHS, Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources or BFAR), was a success for the duration of my stay then in the MHS (I stayed till 1983). And there were no reputable enterprise financing programs for these types then. They funded it themselves, via local funds and private donors.

So for those who are interested to know the success story, please visit Mayoyao in Ifugao. Enjoy the ride up there. For relaxation, you can choose between bottles of gin or local rice wine (tapoy). And better quaff them, because whether hot or cold days, it is always cold up there. Ride the wave of the moment! 

Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Writ 12 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was a former young executive of the Ministry of Human Settlements for Cagayan and Batanes provinces and for Cagayan Valley. ]

Financing micro-enterprise has now come a long way in the Philippines. And there is much cause for jubilation regarding this particular feat.

I myself began my professional career in enterprise finance, as a young livelihood supervisor with the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements. Our funds sources for development financing then were from three sources: (a) Human Settlements Development Corporation or HSDC; (b) Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran or KKK (roughly, National Livelihood Movement); and, (c) BLISS Program, for those BLISS housing site-related projects. That was in the early 1980s, and we were quite awash with funds then.

With quite a huge war chest for our projects, we sat down in no time at all around the 2^nd quarter of 1981 to plan the compass of operations for the newly launched program, the National Livelihood Movement. It took us around two (2) months to do planning internally, after which we took another couple of months to dialogue with other state agencies and procure their own co-operation and partnering with us regarding the project prototypes and modules.

Among those projects that we identified pronto were those simple micro-enterprises that would easily buy with the folks. Our projects though went beyond the micro-finance, as we were mandated to fund huge projects via the HSDC program. I was with the Cagayan Valley team then, and was transferred from community development to livelihood program just so that I can focus my tasks of taking off the new KKK program in my areas of jurisdiction.

I recall very well how reluctant were the folks in accessing to financing. That was a time when the Philippine economy was still 50% rural, and the psyche of the folks was strongly of the peasant-rural artisan type. They couldn’t easily identify with new ideas, even as they get suspicious over them, as the failures of previous programs (e.g. Masagana 99 for rice) have transmogrified them into shy turtles whenever enterprise financing comes. Besides, they weren’t that confident that they could run their own projects competently.

Given that rural background of the folks, our project teams prioritized food production-related concerns, as well as crafts that were more or less backward or forward linkages of food production. To name a few project modules that we developed and successfully funded via the KKK: garlic production (1-1.5 hectares); citrus orchard (5-10 hectares); goat raising (10-heads); draft carabao (1-head buffalo); onion production; bagoong production (backyard, jar-crucible). The total list of enterprises actually went beyond 100 in Cagayan and Batanes alone, where I was primarily assigned. I’m citing only the micro, individual beneficiary-operated projects here.

Because the program was new, we had to undertake a social marketing campaign by informing not only the people but also our partner agencies. The latter were particularly very helpful in our efforts at capacity-building, both for our development implementers and beneficiaries. The financial delivery system also had to be oiled well, as this involved co-partnering with state banks that acted as fund repositories and co-evaluators. It was a success as a whole, amid the gaps in the initial implementations.

That was a long time ago now. The KKK is still alive as an institution today, many other micro-finance institutions have already cropped up including NGOs, and the central bank already entered the arena for regulatory and wholesale funding purposes. The old informal micro-financing, via the 5/6 scheme now has to retool or repackage their financing, as they have been perceived as economic barnacles and have to compete with the formal institutions for beneficiary loyalty.  

The great thing with micro-finance is that not only does it save the petty commodity producer from poverty. As the case of the early 80s had shown, the KKK and related programs were instrumental in cushioning the impact of global recession and the internal shock caused by Dewey Dee scandal that sent down the economy like a sinking boat.

When a strategy such as microfinance can save the boat both on the micro and macro levels, it can indeed be a very strong strategy for national salvation. And this is where our jubilation comes in.

Mabuhay! A toast to micro-finance!  

Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Writ 09 April 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. The author was former convenor, provincial development council of Cagayan, in late 82 till early 83.]

Imagine yourselves as young development planners, managers and implementers, all dreaming of waking up a sleeping province, vastly rich in resources but poor. Representing diverse agencies of state, bonded together by the shared sense of vision and duty, you find yourself confronting a population and a culture that didn’t share your enthusiasm for ambitious projects.

Such was my situation in the early 1980s in Cagayan, Luzon island’s northeastern most province. Already a deputy provincial manater for the Ministry of Human Settlements), at so young an age, I was convenor of the provincial development council there, and so it was my duty to prepare the agenda and call on the participants.

Fresh from my successful stints of handling enterprise development (with micro-finance) and community development, in no time at all did I rise to managerial post and help oversee development for an entire province. I had the luck then of co-partnering with other state officials, both local and national, who were very intelligent, competent, and visionary-type. Being like-minded, we were so happy being together in interagency bodies, and this wonderful social ecology facilitated our production of radical ideas to catapult the status of this province from the backwoods to the center of an emerging global economy.

 This was the time when our collective efforts accelerated the installation of electricity, irrigation facilities, water utilities, telephone, new piers and infrastructures, massive financing support for diverse enterprises, and more. All of these were covered by development plans and the master plan for Cagayan.

Within the aegis of such development visions, plans and implementations did we envision a gigantic industrial estate and international trading facility for the pathetically rural province. On my side, I had the privilege of presenting key ideas and consolidating some feedbacks and recommendations from other stakeholders, notably the provincial-level officials and the mayors’ offices.

Each of the interagency groups had their own assignments, and forwarded the results to the Office of the President then, thru the NACIAD and its arm for Cagayan, the CIADP. The Governor’s Office also had its consolidation works, which it likewise forward directly to the presidential palace. Wading through all those committee networks was itself tough, and tougher was it to go through all the outputs and coming out with a final, consolidated plan.

Sensing that my tour-of-duty for Cagayan will be brief, I used the opportunity to refine the framework and rationale for an industrial estate cum trade facility. We then agreed to call it the ‘Port Irene Project’ for simplification, Port Irene being the backward pier in the reclusive town of Sta. Ana. The ideas arising from these were then presented to the mayors and local-level stakeholders who, like some enthused movie viewers, simply stared at me with stony faces during the session meetings at the famed Kamaranan Hall.

I likewise explained to the stakeholders that, for a rural provinces development to be sound at all, no polluting light or heavy industries will ever be established in any town, save for Sta. Ana where such industries will be concentrated. Only cottage industries will be allowed per town.

No matter how energetic were my elucidations then, I only got stony faces. Anyway, our efforts eventually paid, as the project was put into final plan format (mid-80s), enabled with legislation (new Congress), and implemented. I had already moved on to other development concerns since I left Cagayan in late 83, even became a social scientist and professor, but my level of elation and sense of accomplishment over our ambitious deeds then remains till these days.

It pays to dream and envision big visions that are seemingly hard to take off. This I can personally put so much words to substantiate, based on experiences worth narrating to one and all.