Prized fruit trees, a casualty in Mindanao

Prized scions of the best varieties of fruit trees in Southeast Asia planted in the sprawling Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao were among the casualties in the Mindanao war.

The fruit trees include durian, mangosteen, rambutan, lanzones, and other tropical fruits planted within the vast rebel camp that straddles the towns of Buldon, Barira, Matanog, and Parang.

The camp is actually a big community formerly occupied by fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), their families and by Muslim civilians.

It has been gathered that those destroyed constituted the highest single collection in the Philippines of the best fruit trees from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The scions were largely obtained from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other parts of the Philippines through the global technology search program of the government.

They were envisioned to serve as parents or sources of scions to a sexually propagate planting materials to be mass-produced in the camp. The resulting scions had been planned to be distributed primarily in Muslim communities in Mindanao.

Before the capture of Camp Abubakar by government troops, it also hosted six emerging model fruit orchards which allowed training on the modern techniques in the production of saba and lakatan banana, durian, longkong, rambutan, mangosteen, mango, and others to ensure the profitable production of quality fruits.

But now, those orchards are gone.

Ironically, too, an agriculture scientist who had devoted much of his time helping develop the area into a model fruit production center for Muslim communities was almost kidnapped recently allegedly by a group of MILF fighters.