Some two decades ago, my family had a chance to acquire a small piece of land in a mountain barangay. The property is situated 20 kilometers from the gate of our modest home in Kasambagan. We decided to plant and grow hardwood trees there. Mabolo and Molave were our favored species.
We already knew that the Mabolo tree produces the lumber known as Kamagong. What made us decide to plant Mabolo was the information that it is impervious to termite attack. Mabolo seedlings were not readily available locally. I got our first seedlings from the then Visayas State College of Agriculture (VISCA) in Baybay City, Leyte.
To date, a little more than 300 trees are thriving on our small property, some of which are now bearing fruit.
On the other hand, we were able to get Molave seedlings from local sources. A bigger number of these seedlings came from our city nursery, courtesy of Sir Joey Baclayon.
By the way, Molave is known locally as Tugas. It became rather famous when President Manuel L. Quezon delivered a speech in 1938 entitled “Grow and Be Like a Molave,” using the tree as a metaphor to urge Filipinos to build strong moral character and national self-reliance. Some 300 Tugas trees are now growing on our land, some of which are more than 20 feet tall. We planted, side by side with the Kamagong and Tugas, other fruit tree species such as Avocado, Bugnay, Caimito, Chico, Guyabano, Macopa and Tambis.
Early on, working on our farmland was a challenge. In the first few months, we had to clear it of thick and tall bushes and vines. Worse, the trip going there was difficult. On rainy days, the road was muddy and slippery, even for a certified work car like my old Volkswagen Beetle. When the sun was fiercely hot, we had to drive carefully to avoid the sharp edges of stones. Oh my goodness, the road was not built according to the standards of Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam. We know that a McAdam road was supposed to be a type of road surface made from compacted layers of small, broken stones. Even then, we struggled to visit our small farmland every Saturday.
Former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama brought us much-welcome relief. During his administration, we saw the concreting of barangay roads. We were thankful for Mayor Rama’s efforts. The concreting, which extended to the lower areas of central Barangay Paril and kilometers beyond our land, reduced our travel time from almost two hours to just about 45 minutes. Access to the city’s upland agricultural areas transformed idle hands into industrious farmers. With easier travel, we had the opportunity to plant vegetables, following our neighbors’ example, and still make modest money because of quicker transport.
Today, many homes have been built by my neighbors near my farm. There used to be only three houses there. Our richest neighbor, whose name is Jimmy, recently put up a tienda to serve more than 20 families living nearby. Jimmy alone has four trucks, whereas there were none when I first came to the area. Two other neighbors have their own multicabs, which are four-wheeled vehicles. In fact, aside from the numerous dump trucks plying our route, SUVs and other cars now pass through our sitio.
My point is obviously true to the OFF TANGENT nature of this column. While there were only about a thousand registered voters in Paril in 1988, the population has grown exponentially, and many residents now own motorized vehicles.
The road built by Rama which was wide when constructed, has, in effect, been rendered narrow by the unprecedented growth in the number of users. It is now unable to accommodate the growing volume of transport units and the rapidly increasing population. It has become imperative for the government to widen our roads in the mountains.
I hope Mayor Archival takes an interest in this matter.