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December 14, 2011
Children’s progress points way to Lantad’s future By MIKE BAÑOS
S
INCE the Misamis Oriental provincial government chose Sitio Lantad to be the showcase for its peace building initiatives, the former regional headquarters of the National Democratic Front-New People’s Army (NDF-NPA) has shone in almost all areas where it got help. Time was when the Higaonon residents of Barangay Kibanban’s largest and most progressive sitio only had to finish primary school to be considered educated. Then in 1987, the NPA set up a “People’s Government” in Lantad and took over the functions of all government services including education. During the three-year period when the “People’s Government” held sway in Lantad, education was limited to rudimentary reading and writing and indoctrination in communist propaganda. Classes were taught by “teachers” who finished only 3rd or 4th grade. Barangay Councilor Bruno Lindahay, an ethnic Higaonon born and raised in Lantad, believes it was ignorance, not poverty, which the NPA took advantage of to impress its ideology on the lumad residents. “The communist insurgency thrives on ignorance and deceit and they didn’t want the school children
to learn too much and see through their deceptions,” Mr. Lindahay said in the vernacular, himself being a former member of the NPA. Now 64, Lindahay finished 4th grade at the Lantad Primary School in 1964 at an age when other teeners like him were already finishing high school. The school only attained elementary status in 1997, so many residents like Lindahay had to content themselves with finishing primary school. In his long interaction and service as a public servant, Lindahay said it was only now that the capitol managed to deliver services to Lantad residents, most important of which was the restoration of the Quezon-Lantad barangay road and its upgrading to a provincial road. Nineteen years after reaching its nadir as the center of the communist insurgency in Northern Mindanao, government was officially restored to Sitio Lantad, Barangay Kibanban in the Municipal-
ity of Balingasag, Misamis Oriental with the re-opening of the Quezon-Lantad road on July 8, 2006. Despite atrocities committed against both civilians and government soldiers by the communists in Misamis Oriental in the past two decades, Gov. Oscar S. Moreno opted to extend the olive branch to transform Lantad and make it a showcase of the paradigm shift the province took to pursue peace instead of brute force to subdue the real enemies: poverty and ignorance. At the time when the administration of former president Gloria Arroyo was vowing to wipe out the communist insurgency for good in a year; Oca Moreno´s war for the hearts of the people took a little longer, or maybe much longer road starting with this little experiment in Misamis Oriental called Lantad. Once the regional base of the communist insurgency in Region 10, government agencies led by the provincial government teamed up to do what they deemed was the key to ending the insurgency in the area where the CPPNPA has been the shadow government for the past 25 years: restore the QuezonLantad road. Gov. Oca said Lantad was not only a key test for his administration, in fact, he calls it a “threshold” which would be a showcase of how to win over the hearts and minds of the people indoctrinated by
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25 years of Maoist communist ideology and a quarter century during which the insurgency was the virtual government in the area. Early on his administration, the sitio was identified by the Moreno administration as a high-profile target for development. “We focused on bringing government back to Lantad because it was the symbol of past neglect, the province’s wealth in agriculture, especially abaca, and not the least, Lantad’s role in history as the symbol of the communist insurgency,” the governor said. “Since the road was restored in May 2006, our people have been encouraged to plant more coffee, banana, abaca and corn,” Lindahay said. The Misamis Oriental provincial government invested P9.5 million to re-open and maintain the 25 km. Quezon-Lantad provincial road and opened up whole new world of opportunities for the once isolated Higaonon community in Lantad. On Dec. 18, 2007, the Kibanban-Lantad Agrarian Reform Community (KLARC) launched as special Agrarian Reform Community which enabled residents to access livelihood programs and funds granted exclusively to ARCs even without land distribution in the interest of social justice. Phase 2 of the Dept. of Agrarian Reform’s Solar Power Technology Support
(SPOTS) project provided the people of Lantad with the power and energy needs for agricultural productivity and agribusiness; community facilities like the health center, barangay hall, community and school lighting systems; ‘solar home lighting systems’ for 128 households for lighting and household-based livelihood activities. When funds were not enough, the provincial government partnered with the Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and foreign assisted programs like the DAR SPOTS-CLEEP and EU food production assistance for solar drying, abaca processing and banana tissue culture. As a result of the concerted interventions, the average household income of KLARC members rose from P60,000 in 2008 to P130, 035 in 2011, an impressive 117% increase! In lieu of the traditional horseback ride to Kibanban and the Balingasag poblacion, residents increasingly utilized the habal-habal (motorcycles for hire) and the coop’s van to transport their produce. As the people prospered, those who fled the fighting and communist insurgency returned to their former lands and population rose from 500 in 2005 to 1,033 to 2010, a 106% increase. As a result, the IRA of Bgy Kibanban (of which Sitio Lantad contributed the largest share) doubled from PhP
599,488.84 in 2005 to PhP 1,191,120 in 2011. Despite the increase in population, the percentage of pre-school children was significantly reduced from 40.6% in 2004 to only 15% as of 2011. The number of pre-school children whose body weights were below normal decreased from 102 in 2004 to only 57 in 2011; and the number of pre-school children increased from 251 in 2004 to 377 in 2011. With the increase in the population of young children, total enrollment in the Lantad Elementary School rose from 155 for SY 2006-2007 to 335 for SY 2011-2012, a 116% increase. Most heartening perhaps, the National Achievement Test results of Lantad Elementary School Grade 6 students increased 81% from 49.68% to 89.94% in 2011 (Filipino 61.07 -85.42%, Mathematics 39.46 – 95.14; English 43.93 – 90.37%; Science 36.07 – 83.89%; Hekasi 67.66 – 94.3%) “This is a teamwork I hope will be replicated in other areas of the province; a partnership that can become a showcase for others to follow,” Gov. Oca muses. “It is difficult to attain peace through peaceful means, but it is more rewarding.” Now Moreno has a showcase that not only Misamis Oriental, but other similarly situated sitios and barangays all over the country can emulate as well.
Maayong Pasko ug Mabungahong Bag-ong Tuig! Gikan ni:
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Hon. PEPE ABBU City Councilor