Thailand to rebuild Banaue’s terraces

King Bhumibol Adul-yadej of Thailand has promised to send experts to the Philippines to help in rebuilding the Banaue rice terraces, President Arroyo said Wednesday.

Speaking upon arrival from Bangkok at midnight, Mrs. Arroyo said she had impressed on King Bhumibol that Filipinos are proud of the Banaue rice terraces, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) recognizes as a national heritage.

"But I told (King Bhumibol) about how the young people now are no longer interested in working so hard to preserve the rice terraces because there are other better ways to make a living," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said King Bhumibol, 75, told her that Thailand is developing a new kind of technology that could help them build rice terraces similar to those in Banawe.

"And (King Bhumibol) is willing and very much able and very enthusiastic about transferring that technology to the Philippines," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said officials of the Philippine Embassy in Thailand will visit the various experimental stations of the rice terraces technology.

"So that we can save our rice terraces through modern technology and at the same time, spread this technology to other mountain areas where the poor people need to produce rice at a surplus or enough rice that they can eat on their own," she said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo said she and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have agreed to expand the rice-for-fertilizer counter trade between the Philippines and Thailand.

"We have also agreed to expand counter-trade arrangements," she said. "I have designated the Land Bank of the Philippines to be our official clearing house for such arrangements, the first of which will be the payment of imported rice from Thailand with a corresponding export of fertilizer to that country."

Mrs. Arroyo said the highlight of her trip to Bangkok was her audience with the King and Queen of Thailand at the Royal Palace.

"It was a wonderful meeting that lasted for more than an hour, filled with wonderful memories of their visit to the Philippines when my father was president and the many times that the King and my father interacted with each other in various bilateral and multilateral meetings," she said.

King Bhumibol’s memorable trip to the Philippines was his visit the Banawe rice terraces, she added. His royal highness Bhumibol has been king since 1946.

Mrs. Arroyo proceeded to Thailand last Tuesday after a speaking engagement in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where she witnessed the signing of a trilateral anti-terrorism agreement among Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. – Marichu Villanueva